Trump in attack mode - but crowd a big letdown

Donald Trump returned to a favorite spot - a campaign stage - in defying the pandemic and attacking Democratic rivals, but it was an event with a crowd far smaller than promised.

Gathering the faithful for a rally in Oklahoma that was his first in three months, the Republican US president sought to reinvigorate a flagging campaign in the face of a health-economic crisis and protests against racial injustice.

Trump all but claimed victory over the pandemic that has killed some 120,000 Americans - "I have done a phenomenal job with it!" he insisted - even as six members of his Tulsa advance team tested positive for Covid-19.

The event, which the White House promised would be flooded with up to 100,000 people, did not see the arena's 19,000 seats filled.

In the hours before the event, crowds were significantly lighter than expected, and campaign officials scrapped plans for Trump to first address an overflow space outdoors. About a third of the seats at his indoor rally were empty.

But Trump was intent on reviving his political fortunes after several bruising weeks that saw continued economic woes tied to the pandemic, nationwide protests over racial injustice, the toppling of Confederate and other statues, and critics including former aides savaging his performance.

"The silent majority is stronger than ever," Trump said in a rowdy, freewheeling speech in which he blasted his 2020 election rival, Democrat Joe Biden, as a "helpless puppet of the radical left."

He predicted: "Five months from now we're going to defeat 'sleepy' Joe Biden."

Many rally-goers wore red "Make America Great Again" hats or T-shirts, but few had masks or followed social distancing, though virus cases have skyrocketed in Oklahoma.

And while attendees had to sign a waiver protecting organizers from liability if Covid-19 spread there, Trump rolled along in full-on campaign mode, reviving themes that dominated his 2016 campaign: smearing immigrants, building a wall on the border with Mexico, demanding flagburners be thrown in jail and highlighting a rising stock market.

"If you see it happening on November 3," he said of America's potential rebound, "you don't have the guts to vote against Trump."

He steered clear until well into his 105-minute speech of the racial tensions that have swept the country in the weeks since African American George Floyd was killed by police in Minneapolis.

Instead he said Democrats wanted to erase American heritage, saying: "The unhinged left-wing mob is trying to vandalize our history, desecrate our beautiful monuments, tear down our statues, and punish, cancel and persecute anyone who does not conform to their demands for absolute and total control."

The stakes could not have been higher - for the health of thousands in the arena and for Trump's political fortunes five months before an election in which he trails in the polls.

Dozens of Black Lives Matter protesters confronted attendees without violence, but police later used pepper spray on activists.