The Speech: Trump Tried to Win One for the Gipper

Jacob Heilbrunn

Politics,

The president that Trump was channeling in his more personable tone, his optimism about America’s future was Ronald Reagan.

The conventional wisdom about Donald Trump is that he is unconventional. He delivered again tonight, playing against type. This was Trump’s anti-inaugural speech. Trump’s tone was totally different from the dark carnage that he talked about in January. Now the emphasis was on a “nation of miracles” and unity. “It’s pure unadulterated division,” he said. “We have to unify.” “The time for trivial fights,” he declared, “is over.” This was the larger theme of his speech, which was measured, disciplined and controlled. This was Trump 2.0, the reboot that many conservatives at places like the Wall Street Journal editorial page have been demanding. Centrist Democrats like West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin also said that his “tone was good.”

Indeed, it was closer to an embrace of American exceptionalism than anything Trump has previously endorsed. The president that Trump was channeling in his more personable tone, his optimism about America’s future was Ronald Reagan. Reagan would have cringed at Trump’s dyspeptic remarks about free trade, but he would have hailed his call for “hope and renewal.” The truth is that this evening Trump tried to win one for the Gipper.

Right at the outset Trump set a different tone by noting that it is Black History month and condemning the vandalism of Jewish cemeteries and the murder of an Indian engineer in Kansas. He went on to state—again in contrast to his inaugural address—that America is on the move, that a sense of optimism pervades the country. He even declared that our allies will see that “America is ready to lead.”