The building rattled as the rocket blasted off over crowds of onlookers gathered at nearby beaches under the hot Florida sun. And the president joined an entourage of Republican lawmakers and Cabinet secretaries in cheers and applause. No more than a minute after blastoff, Elton John’s 1972 hit “Rocket Man” — a staple of the president’s campaign rallies — flowed out of speakers on the rooftop.

“They have a long way to go, but that’s a very dangerous part of it right there,” Trump said of Douglas Hurley and Robert Behnken, the two NASA astronauts aboard the capsule, moments after it catapulted off the launch platform. “When you see a sight like that, it’s incredible. When you hear that sound — the roar — you can imagine how dangerous it is.”

The president, who described the mission as an “inspiration” for Americans, cast the launch on Saturday as a triumphant moment for the country — a brief reprieve from an otherwise dark period in American history. The number of coronavirus-related deaths in the U.S. topped 100,000 on Wednesday, a grim milestone that overlapped with the outbreak of violent protests in response to Floyd’s death. The protests began in Minneapolis on Thursday and spread to other parts of the country late Friday, leading Trump and local officials to warn that the unrest could exacerbate a once-in-a-generation economic crisis already caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.

“We support the right of peaceful protests and we hear their pleas, but what we are now seeing on the streets of our cities has nothing to do with the memory of George Floyd,” Trump said during his remarks here. “The mobs are devastating the life’s work of good people and destroying their dreams.”

Trump’s demand for “healing not hatred, justice not chaos” came hours after he blamed the “radical Left” for provoking civil unrest in a series of tweets and warned demonstrators in Washington they would face “vicious dogs” if they breached the White House fence while protesting. Trump also said he looked forward to seeing his supporters gather outside the White House complex Saturday evening, as part of a counterprotest.

“The violence and vandalism is being led by antifa and other radical left-wing groups who are terrorizing the innocent, destroying jobs, hurting businesses and burning down buildings,” he said in his remarks to NASA employees and their families.

Though Saturday’s occasion was largely overshadowed by the outbreak of violence in U.S. cities, Trump still managed to plug his “America First” agenda. He talked about the future of space exploration and the U.S. Space Force that his administration formally established as a new branch of the Armed Forces in December.

“The United States has regained our place of prestige as the world leader. You can’t be No. 1 on Earth if you are No. 2 in space, and we are not going to be No. 2 anywhere,” Trump said. “Nowhere is this more true than with our military, which we have completely rebuilt under my administration.”

In his remarks on the space campus in Cape Canaveral, the president also said the SpaceX launch should be a powerful testament to what the country can accomplish through public-private partnerships as the government and private drug manufacturers work to develop a vaccine for Covid-19.

“Moments ago, as we witnessed the launch of two great Americans into space, we were filled with the sense of pride and unity that brings us together as Americans. The same spirit of American determination that sends our astronauts into space will conquer this disease on earth,” he said.

The mission on Saturday marked a first for corporate-driven space exploration, the result of a collaboration between tech billionaire Elon Musk’s SpaceX company and NASA. Musk, who was in the crowd on Saturday, joined Trump at the operational command center after the launch as the president congratulated NASA personnel and discussed the status of the Crew Dragon capsule, which reached low-Earth orbit late Saturday afternoon. Behnken and Hurley then made a 19-hour journey to the International Space Station.

Saturday’s success story for the Trump administration and Musk came three days after the the SpaceX rocket was originally scheduled to be launched. Only minutes after championing the latest development in NASA’s space program on Wednesday, the president ditched his planned remarks and returned to Washington in a sour mood — anxious to put the coronavirus outbreak behind him and get back to events unrelated to the public health crisis and geared toward his 2020 campaign. Even as he jetted off to Florida on Saturday, it was unclear before takeoff whether the president would get the photo opportunity he desired.

But once the capsule launched and Trump found himself back in front of a large crowd, he returned to campaign mode: singling out his GOP allies at the NASA event, making blustery comments about China and the origins of the novel coronavirus and using a nonpartisan moment to advance his reelection message.