The Week: Trump’s Bombastic Address to Congress

• Democrats with canes have a long and troubled history in the U.S. Capitol.

• President Trump’s address to the joint session of Congress was boastful, sometimes justifiably so. He touted his restoration of order at the border. We didn’t need new legislation to secure it, he said; “all we really needed was a new president.” He was on weaker ground concerning the economy. He said he would balance the budget—but most of the specific plans he advocated would put that goal further out of reach. He also repeated false claims about millions of people over 100 years old collecting Social Security benefits. Those claims depend on a misinterpretation of a database in which the government does not have a date of death associated with certain Social Security numbers. Even more jarringly, Trump said that he was working every day to bring prices down even as he imposes the largest increase in tariffs in 80 years. He promises that the disruption will be minimal and the rewards great—which both economic theory and the experience of his own previous administration belie. But he has a lifeline in the form of the Democratic Party, whose members in Congress in attendance could not bring themselves to stand up for mothers who had lost their children to violence by illegal immigrants, for a child with cancer, or for the capture of the Abbey Gate terrorist. The speech confirmed that Trump has less to fear from his opposition than from his own hubris.

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• Democrats with canes have a long and troubled history in the U.S. Capitol.

• President Trump’s address to the joint session of Congress was boastful, sometimes justifiably so. He touted his restoration of order at the border. We didn’t need new legislation to secure it, he said; “all we really needed was a new president.” He was on weaker ground concerning the economy. He said he would balance the budget—but most of the specific plans he advocated would put that goal further out of reach. He also repeated false claims about millions of people over 100 years old collecting Social Security benefits. Those claims depend on a misinterpretation of a database in which the government does not have a date of death associated with certain Social Security numbers. Even more jarringly, Trump said that he was working every day to bring prices down even as he imposes the largest increase in tariffs in 80 years. He promises that the disruption will be minimal and the rewards great—which both economic theory and the experience of his own previous administration belie. But he has a lifeline in the form of the Democratic Party, whose members in Congress in attendance could not bring themselves to stand up for mothers who had lost their children to violence by illegal immigrants, for a child with cancer, or for the capture of the Abbey Gate terrorist. The speech confirmed that Trump has less to fear from his opposition than from his own hubris.