James Morrow: Trump finds his pitch

DONALD Trump gave the speech he should have given as his inaugural address – and, for that matter, the speech that should have been his go-to script all throughout the campaign.

DONALD Trump just gave the speech he should have given as his inaugural address – and, for that matter, the speech that should have been his go-to script all throughout the presidential campaign.

Gone were the visions of a dark and decrepit America beset on all sides by enemies foreign and domestic.

Precious little was seen of the freewheeling rhetoric that could find the line and then take one step over it – to the delight of crowds and the horror of the big-city press.

President Donald Trump acknowledges applause after addressing a joint session of Congress. Picture: AFP

Even the ego was left waiting in the car, with only the barest mention of the “tens of millions” of Americans who came out to support Trump’s “revolution” on Election Day.

And naturally, Democrats were horrified.

Indeed, after his opening lines, when he saluted Black History Month and condemned a series of hate crimes, legislators on the left were left to sit and stay sitting with all the determination of Homer Simpson on his day off while Republicans gave standing O’s at every full stop.

He even gave a shout-out to Australia’s skills-based immigration system, suggesting this might be a way forward for the US.

America’s got problems, Trump said, but nothing that some tightened borders, lower taxes, and big infrastructure spends can’t fix: “America is strong, America is proud and America is free.”

Putting aside the America First isolationism of the campaign, Trump said that “America is ready to lead” – and affirmed the US’s commitment to NATO, even if Europe will be asked to pony up more for their defense.

President Trump delivers his first address to a joint session of Congress from the floor of the House of Representatives. Picture: AFP

President Trump departs after making his address.

He promised the repeal of Obamacare for something bigger and better – a health system where Americans could keep their own doctors (referencing one of his predecessor’s biggest whoppers in selling the scheme) and where drug companies would be able to get fast track approval for drugs.

He outlined tax cuts, invoked Lincoln and Eisenhower, and threw the spotlight on the suffers of rare diseases and the surviving families of veterans and cops killed in the line of duty.

He said that when it comes to immigration, the wall will be built, and that “it is not compassionate but reckless to allow entryfrom places where proper vetting cannot occur”.

He even gave a shout-out to Australia’s skills-based immigration system, suggesting this might be a way forward for the US.

Carryn Owens, wife of slain Navy SEAL William Owens, looks up while being acknowledged by President Trump during his address.

President Trump and the entire chamber direct applause to Carryn Owens, widow of Navy Seal William Owens.

And through almost all of it, Democrats remained silent – though Elizabeth Warren did give up a golf clap for a line about encouraging female entrepreneurship.

Wedging half the chamber on issue after issue, Trump’s inner New Yorker essentially challenged Congress: Do you want to make America great again or what?

For a moment there, Donald Trump looked awfully presidential. Picture: AFP

Of course, one speech is not enough to make a presidency great, or even great again.

The miscues of the past weeks, particularly over his executive order on immigration, still leave in many eyes the impression of administration that is (charitably) still finding its feet or (in a more jaundiced view) an utterly shambolic wreck threatening to drag America into the abyss.

But for a moment there, Donald Trump looked awfully presidential.

James Morrow is the Daily Telegraph’s Opinion Editor