, Columnist
Trump Strikes a Better Tone. So What?
For a president giving one of his few major speeches in support of his legislative agenda, substance matters. Trump came up as short as ever.
More than an hour of cotton candy.
Photographer: Win McNamee/Getty ImagesThis article is for subscribers only.
Donald Trump finally gave a first-class nomination acceptance speech. Unfortunately, he's running about eight months behind what he needs to be doing now.
After 40 days of presiding over a remarkably dysfunctional and chaotic administration, Trump didn't spend (much) time rehashing the election, bashing the media, or ad-libbing nonsense. There were a few whoppers, but my guess (before the fact-checkers do their work) is that for a convention speech addressed to partisans and curious independents, most of the exaggerations and misstatements were relatively normal.1488339328513