Trump’s excellent D-Day speech captured soldiers’ courage

Give President Trump credit. His prepared remarks on the 75th anniversary of D-Day were eloquent and inspirational. His words represented the United States quite well.

Any president who speaks in Normandy faces the tall order of trying to live up to former President Ronald Reagan’s 40th anniversary D-Day address (“These are the boys of Pointe du Hoc”), which to my mind is one of the greatest speeches ever given in the English language. The comparison is not a fair one, because sequels can never have the freshness of originals. What a sequel can do, though, is to add texture and resonance, while renewing the lessons and depth of feeling that came before.