A Quietly Radical Speech

Ben Casselman: “Reviews of President Trump’s first address to Congress on Tuesday night seem to be converging around a single theme: It was Trump at his most subdued… And they’re right. In tone and style, Trump’s speech was relatively normal, at least judging it against his earlier efforts. He opened his address by condemning recent threats against Jewish community centers and the shooting last week of two Indian immigrants in Kansas City, something he had been criticized for not doing earlier. He called for unity and cross-party cooperation, and stayed away from attacks on the press or his political opponents. Apart from a few banal ad-libs, he largely stuck to his script.”

“But beneath the gentler tone, Trump’s speech — a State of the Union address in all but name — was quietly radical. He called for a complete overhaul of U.S. policy on taxes, trade, immigration and health care. He proposed spending billions more on defense and as much as $1 trillion on infrastructure. And he promised a new version of his controversial — and currently stalled — travel ban on visitors from seven majority Muslim countries.”