President Trump has surprised everyone again and again; when he ran for the White House, when he won the Republican primary and when he won the White House, to name only the three most obvious occasions. Nearly every week during the past 18 months, he has produced a statement or action that sends shock waves across the nation and around the world.

He did it again Tuesday night when he delivered the best speech of his political career, and presumably of his life. There were moments of genuinely fine oratory in his address to a joint session of Congress, and none of the meandering diversions with which he has ruined speeches before (notably his convention acceptance speech). He was, perhaps for the first time, truly and impressively presidential.