Trump's Iowa speech was extremely entertaining. It was also an admission of failure.

The president traveled to Iowa and bragged about all the promises he's broken

Trump's speaks at his rally in Iowa.
(Image credit: Scott Olson/Getty Images)

President Trump's speech in Iowa on Wednesday night was fantastic, in the way that an Eddie Money concert at a county fair in Kentucky is fantastic.

I don't just mean that it was a great excuse for drinking beer, though it was. There were no lame surprise attempts to play the bad new stuff: He stuck to the greatest hits, and the crowd loved it. Like somebody's mustached uncle reliving his misspent youth while raising a lighter to "Take Me Home Tonight," I had almost forgotten how much I loved listening to Trump's extemporized dithyrambs to "toughness" and "beautiful coal" and rooting against my own team when he berates the press.

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Matthew Walther

Matthew Walther is a national correspondent at The Week. His work has also appeared in First Things, The Spectator of London, The Catholic Herald, National Review, and other publications. He is currently writing a biography of the Rev. Montague Summers. He is also a Robert Novak Journalism Fellow.