WASHINGTON — Lagging in polls and still showing the lingering effects of a bout with COVID-19, President Donald Trump gathered hundreds of supporters on the South Lawn on Saturday for a political rally without precedent on the White House grounds — until he delivered a GOP convention speech there in August.

The White House, currently the worst coronavirus hot spot in the nation’s capital, billed it as an “official” event and a “peaceful protest for law and order.” But it was hard to distinguish from a typical campaign rally, replete with adoring fans in red caps who cheered as the president boasted of his debate prowess and polls in battleground states.

“We have a level of support the likes of which nobody has ever seen,” he said before launching into a riff on ballot fraud that touched off yet more cheers. “I think we’re going to swamp ’em by so much it’s not gonna matter.”

Aides said the president’s campaign had nothing to do with the event. But the White House didn’t stop supporters from bringing their own “Make America Great Again” hats and critics questioned the propriety of such overt politicking at the executive mansion.

Law and order is a central theme of the president’s reelection bid.

Nearly everyone in the crowd wore blue shirts designed for a “Back the Blue” pro-police demonstration organized by the Blexit Foundation. The White House outsourced the invitation list to that conservative group, which focuses on empowerment of Black and other minority voters.

The crowd was unusually diverse for a Trump political event, which are overwhelmingly white.

“You understand that to protect the lives of Black Americans, and all Americans, we must support our police,” Trump told the crowd after opening with an explicit election appeal: “We got to vote these people into oblivion. Vote them into oblivion. Got to get rid of them. So bad for our country.”

Saturday marked two weeks since the super spreader event in the nearby Rose Garden, where Trump unveiled his nominee for the Supreme Court, Judge Amy Coney Barrett, before an audience of VIPs, many of whom tested COVID-positive within days.

The outbreak hit the president and his wife, longtime counselor Kellyanne Conway, immigration adviser Stephen Miller, confidante Hope Hicks and press secretary Kayleigh McEnany, along with former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, three U.S. senators and a dozen or so lower-level White House aides.

The Democratic National Committee sent a mobile billboard to drive around the White House on Saturday afternoon, playing audio of Dr. Anthony Fauci saying the Sept. 26 Supreme Court nominee ceremony was a super spreader event.

The sniping did not reach Trump fans on the White House grounds, though, among them Yolanda de la Torre from Rialto, Calif., who was thrilled to end up at a Trump speech.

“We heard that we’re going to be out here to back the blue, and our family is very pro police officer, law enforcement, law and order. So we had to come out here and do our part,” she said, shrugging aside whether it’s appropriate to hold a campaign rally at the White House. “No, it felt a little bit like a celebration to me.”

Trump spoke for about 18 minutes.

When he appeared on the balcony of the Blue Room, far from the nearest supporter, he was wearing a light blue facemask, which he quickly took off. He showed no signs of being hoarse, short of breath or weak, though the speech was a fraction of his typical 90-minute campaign rally stemwinder.

And close-up photos showed flesh-tone bandages on the back of his right hand, presumably to cover bruising from intravenous injections.

Dr. Scott Atlas, a White House medical adviser, stood without a mask near the back with White House chief of staff Mark Meadows.

“If the left gains power, they will launch a nationwide crusade against law enforcement — taking away their funds, their firearms and their fundamental authorities,” Trump said. “It is time for all Americans to stand up and reject the campaign of slander against our police from left-wing politicians and liberal pundits.”

Trump assured the crowd that “through the power of American science and medicine, we will eradicate the ‘China virus’ once and for all.”

Despite the overt politicking, White House spokesman Judd Deere said the Trump campaign had nothing to do with the event. He also insisted the were no violations of the Hatch Act, which precludes federal employees from most election activity while on the job and bars campaigning on federal property, though the president himself is exempt.

“The campaign is not involved in this,” Deere said. “This is an official event.”

Mixed messages on outbreak

Critics have decried Trump’s mixed messaging on the pandemic — urging the public to pitch in to reduce the outbreak while refraining from serving as any sort of role model for social distancing and routine mask-wearing.

On Friday, the bipartisan commission that organizes the presidential debates canceled Thursday’s town hall-style showdown in Miami after Trump refused to participate virtually, as the commission insisted would be necessary to protect attendees.

His detractors found Saturday’s display as unsurprising as it was counterproductive — though unlike the Rose Garden event, where VIPs sat shoulder to shoulder without masks and were seen leaning into each other and socializing, spacing on the South Lawn was more generous.

The press pool was arranged at some distance from the crowd, in keeping with demands from the White House Correspondents’ Association for measures to minimize risk.

Trump was diagnosed with COVID-19 five days after the Supreme Court event, and two days after sharing a debate stage in Cleveland with rival Joe Biden.

He spent three days at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, returning to the White House on Monday night after an aggressive course of steroids and antibody treatment, and he has been itching to return to the stump.

On Monday evening, the president plans to hold his first rally since falling ill, in Sanford, Fla., near Orlando. Shortly before Saturday’s South Lawn event, the campaign announced two more rallies: Tuesday night in Pennsylvania and Wednesday in Des Moines, Iowa.

The White House has not disclosed what steps it will take to safeguard the health of the dozens of people who travel with the president whenever he leaves Washington, including Secret Service, stewards aboard Air Force One, and the 13-member press pool.

His military physician, Navy Cmdr. Dr. Sean Conley, issued a note Thursday night, one week after the diagnosis, indicating that the president was responding well and would be cleared to return to normal activities by Saturday, barring any setback.

However, the White House and the president’s medical team have yet to say whether the president now tests negative for COVID-19, or even when his most recent negative test was.

Independent medical experts say thatso soon after a bout with the coronavirus that has claimed more than 210,000 American lives, multiple negative tests are required to provide confidence that a patient is no longer contagious.