President Trump and presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden are fighting to shape public perception around the protests convulsing the country, a high-stakes battle that comes as the nation is gripped by largely peaceful protests mixed with disturbing scenes of chaos.

Trump is taking a hardline approach on law and order, using military personnel to crack down on protesters outside the White House and demanding that Democratic leadership in metro areas regain control from vandals and looters that have ransacked businesses and fought with the police.

The president’s campaign is making the case that Biden is too weak and that the country needs a strong leader in a time of crisis.

Biden is casting Trump as lacking in empathy at a time when racial tensions are boiling over after the death of George Floyd, an unarmed black man who died on a street in Minneapolis after a police officer restrained him by kneeling on his neck. That officer now faces murder charges, though his three colleagues who looked on so far do not.

The former vice president is accusing Trump of inflaming racial tensions and says the president lacks the leadership skills to guide the country through this historic moment of civil unrest.

Biden on Tuesday ventured out of his home state of Delaware for the first time since the coronavirus lockdown to denounce Trump from City Hall in Philadelphia, one of the dozens of cities wracked by protests and incidents of violence in recent days.

Trump is under fire from Democrats – and even some Republicans — after police fired tear gas and smoke canisters into a crowd of protesters outside the White House to clear a path for him to take a picture with a Bible in front of a historic church that had been set on fire by vandals.