Trump accepts nomination on White House stage

President Donald Trump has accepted his party's renomination from a massive White House South Lawn stage Thursday night.

He's breaking with tradition by using the executive mansion as a political backdrop and defying pandemic guidelines to address a tightly packed, largely maskless crowd.

Trump opened his acceptance speech by mentioning Hurricane Laura, which recently lashed the Gulf Coast, killing at least half a dozen people.

Trump said Thursday during his speech to close out the Republican National Convention that his thoughts are with the “wonderful people who have just come through the wrath of Hurricane Laura.”

Laura came ashore early Thursday as a Category 4 hurricane and caused widespread damage around Lake Charles, an industrial and casino city of 80,000 people.

The storm left entire neighborhoods in ruins and almost 900,000 homes and businesses without power. Laura is the most powerful storm to hit the U.S. this year. But there was relief that it was not the annihilating menace forecasters had feared. A full damage assessment is likely to take days.

Trump said Thursday he would visit the area this weekend.