Scheduled to start at 8:30 PM Eastern time: C-SPAN is live-streaming the Donald Trump foreign policy speech here. I will be watching it, and I’ll let you know what I thought of it after it’s done. I imagine that it won’t be dull, at least.

Updates after the fold.

[9 PM] First impression: this is a crowd and vibe that’s right back to 2003, in terms of Republican style (and I admit to missing it, after seven years of Barack Obama’s grudging admissions that maybe America is better than some countries). Second impression: this speech was supposed to start at 8:30, and as of when I’m writing this it’s 9 PM. I do not think that this is unintentional. I get the impression, in fact, that we’re going to see a considerably shorter speech than the hour and a half that I was mildly expecting. But I could be wrong. We’ll see.

[9:05 PM] Prediction from this intro: Donald Trump’s going to call for increased military spending and an end to sequestration with regard to the military.

[9:08 PM] Donald Trump is starting smart by pointing out just how awful the VA is. Which it is.

[9:12 PM] Called it. Also, I will happily concede that from a business standpoint the Iraq Deal is as bad as Trump described it.  Also also, I ain’t impressed with Hillary Clinton and John Kerry, either.

[9:15 PM] And we went from immigration to the Great Wall of Mexico to apparently a nascent trade war with… Japan? And we’re back to Mexico.

[9:20 PM] This is… not a foreign policy speech. I’m not saying that it’s a bad speech; it’s actually entertaining and passionate. But there’s nothing really… wait. It’s OVER? Twenty minutes! It was blocked out for an hour and a half!

…And he’s flogging the hats.

[pause]

OK, my reaction. Well, the Trump campaign has a nice soundtrack and you can dance to it, but I’d love to hear how we’re going to make Mexico pay for a giant monster wall or why it’s suddenly necessary to start a trade war with Japan over beef tariffs or why Donald Trump thinks that invoking the name ‘Carl Icahn’ will relieve my mind on anything or… oh, you get the idea.

Still. I will grant this about Donald Trump: he legitimately despises the Iran Deal and doesn’t care much for either of our last two Secretaries of State. He also avoided directly insulting anybody on the GOP side of the aisle by name in this speech, which is nice. So there’s that.

Have a good night, folks. Debate’s tomorrow: hopefully, we’ll get some actual policy stuff then.

Moe Lane