WASHINGTON (AP) – President Donald Trump has aggressively asserted control over the Republican National Convention, overshadowing the prime-time speakers and making clear he wants voters to focus on him.

Speakers Monday delivered apocalyptic warnings about the future of the nation if Democrat Joe Biden becomes president. There was little mention of the coronavirus pandemic that has killed more than 175,000 Americans.

Republicans did assert that Trump and the party have done a lot to help minorities.

Tim Scott of South Carolina and the state’s former governor, Nikki Haley, were among the first to speak at the convention.

Both argued that the president and his party had done a lot to help minorities across the nation.

“We live in a world that only wants you to believe in the bad news, racially, economically and culturally-polarizing news,” said Scott, the party’s only African American senator. “We don’t give into cancel culture, or the radical — and factually baseless — belief that things are worse today than in the 1860s or the 1960s.” He added that Biden would turn the U.S. into a “socialist utopia.”

It will continue on Tuesday when first lady Melania Trump will deliver remarks from the White House.

President Trump is expected to appear every night, potentially joining Melania Trump and Vice President Mike Pence at their prime-time speeches.