Protesters gathered in Black Lives Matter plaza and people attending Trump's acceptance speech in Washington D.C. on Aug. 27. Photos: Left, Olivier Douliery/AFP via Getty Images; right, Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images
President Trump will officially accept the Republican nomination for president before a crowd of more than 1,000 people on the White House South Lawn Thursday night. Meanwhile, demonstrators gathered outside in Lafayette Park to protest his administration.
Why it matters: The president's re-election campaign and the Republican National Convention have essentially transformed the South Lawn of the White House into a political stage.
Between the lines, via Axios' Margaret Talev: By packing in an audience of more than 1,000 guests, inches not feet apart, most without masks, the president is portraying an image of the U.S. with the pandemic under control and moving past it — when that’s not what the statistics show or public health officials are advising at all.