SETTING THE PACE

Donald Trump paused long enough for a campaign stop on Capitol Hill

- PHILIP ELLIOTT

PERHAPS THE CLEAREST DISTILLATION OF President Donald Trump’s sprawling first address to the new Congress came when he brought up Social Security. Politicians usually mention the program to assure Americans that they will protect it, or to claim the other party won’t. Trump proceeded to lay out the premise for cutting it.

“Over 130,000 people, according to the Social Security databases, are aged over 160 years old,” Trump asserted. He added that 1,041 of these people are over the age of 220. The figures he quoted had been thoroughly debunked, with even his own Social Security chief explaining that the numbers are a misreading of an ancient federal database. In other words, there’s no proof any of those “people” are getting monthly checks.

But facts were not the point. The night of March 4 was entirely about feelings. And if everything about the evening felt overwhelming, that is because it was, and by design. For the six weeks leading up to Trump’s speech, Washington had been yanked and ghosted, lurched and savaged, all with a merciless urgency. “Swift and unrelenting action” was how Trump described his record. It was one of the few uncontestable statements from the dais.