Jules Witcover, syndicated columnist

WASHINGTON — Donald Trump’s Republican nomination acceptance speech Thursday night on the South Lawn of the White House was a revealing confession of his political weakness as he heads into the remaining 10 weeks of the 2020 campaign.

The president made only brief references to the coronavirus pandemic that has paralyzed the country and that he has so mismanaged.

Instead, he pivoted to a full-throated assault on Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden. Trump depicted himself as the savior of an “American way of life” imperiled by Biden’s embrace of socialism, forced on him by more progressive and radical members of the Democratic Party.

Trump’s warning was an echo of the old Joe McCarthy rant against communism from the 1950s, implying that socialism was only a softer version of the communism from the Red Scare era. Trump managed to link it to current street protests against racial injustice in cities such as Kenosha, Wisconsin.

“This election will decide whether we save the American Dream, or whether we allow a socialist agenda to demolish our cherished destiny,” the president thundered. “Your vote will decide whether we protect law-abiding Americans or whether we give free rein to violent anarchists, agitators and criminals who threaten our citizens.”

Trump spoke amid a wholesale appropriation of the trappings of presidential power on the White House lawn before an estimated 1,500 guests, many of whom, like himself and first lady Melania Trump, were not wearing face masks or observing social distancing as urged by public health experts.

The Thursday-night extravaganza followed Trump’s earlier use of the White House for a televised naturalization ceremony for five new citizens that Democratic critics said violated the Hatch Act outlawing the use of federal property for partisan political purpose.

Trump summed up his message with another warning that “no one will be safe in Biden’s America,” at a time when so many Americans are unsafe in Trump’s America, with the pandemic remaining unchecked and no consistent presidential plan to arrest it.

The president called Biden “a Trojan horse for socialism,” adding that “Joe Biden is not the savior America’s soul. He is the destroyer of America’s jobs, and if given the chance, he will be the destroyer of American greatness.”

Trump went on, alluding to Biden’s long public service as a senator and vice president.

“We have spent the last four years reversing the damage Joe Biden inflicted over the last 47 years,” Trump said. “Biden’s record is a shameful roll call of the most catastrophic betrayals and blunders in our lifetime. He has spent his entire career on the wrong side of history.”

This eruption, coming in the midst of a nomination acceptance speech, had the ring of desperation. It came along with a brief assurance that despite allegations of his neglect of the pandemic challenge, he has taken action to address it.

“We are delivering life-saving therapies and will produce a vaccine before the end of the year, and maybe even sooner,” Trump said. “We will defeat the virus, end the pandemic and emerge stronger than ever before.”

As for his political foe, Trump claimed that “Joe Biden’ s plan is not a solution to the virus, but rather it’s a surrender to the virus.”

Trump’s bitter assault appeared to be an effort to breach Biden’s much-touted reputation as a man of empathy toward others, in contrast to Trump’s lack of it and his unending self-aggrandizement.

But in the nice-guy competition, this president has a long way to go, and he’s unlikely to make much progress by taking on the role of campaign attack dog himself, rather than leaving it to Vice President Mike Pence or some other designated hitter.

Editor’s note: Jules Witcover’s latest book is “The American Vice Presidency: From Irrelevance to Power,” published by Smithsonian Books. You can respond to this column at juleswitcovercomcast.net.