As I often reflect, even when things seem quiet on the Trump front, there is always something going on that in my view is worth writing about and whether or not we want it to be so this generally impacts on the way the world is going and how we perceive it to be. Since I posted my last episode of Trumpwatch, five weeks ago, I have reflected on the hiatus over the forthcoming Trump visit to the UK in “Trump State visit – whether or not to boycott” and a response to the ongoing commentary that Trump is a baddie to be taken down in “Trump evil!? nah, on the contrary …”.

One of the problems we as humble citizens face is that we know less than half of what is really going on in the land of Trump (and most things come to that), and we rely on various media to fill us in. If Trump is to be believed, much of media is unreliable and may be seen as “The enemy of the people”, which I have also reflected on, in particular how Trump has been called out for Russia collusion, and this was a major focus of news reporting these past three years, and now he has been exonerated by the Mueller report rather than concentrate on the real story – “Spygate” (Wikipedia has this down as a conspiracy theory) it continues to dig dirt on Trump.

The problem of whether or not to believe the media was brought to a head this week concerning the way it reported the meeting Trump had with senior Democrats over infrastructure and the acrimonious aftermath: “Trump, Pelosi trade insults as their feud heats up”. I spent a few hours going over how the story was reported. While trying to be as neutral as I can, this may be summarized thus: Trump invites leading Democrats led by Pelosi and Schumer to a meeting at the White House to discuss infrastructure; just prior to that Pelosi delivers a speech calling Trump out over corruption; Trump quickly concludes said meeting feeling said behavior was not conducive to having a working relationship; Trump gives a speech giving his reason and account of what happens; Pelosi gives a speech accusing Trump of being what is tantamount to a petulant child that can’t get his own way. Who to believe? Here we turn to the media.

Normally, I do what most of us do and go to sources I trust or at least are on my wavelength when it comes to having an opinion. As far as mainstream media goes, that has to be Fox News and someone like Sean Hannity. But I did not start here, but rather with an outlet that can usually be counted on to be anti Trump. So I began with Anderson Cooper of CNN and other CNN front persons. If it were not for the fact I am already wised up to / prejudiced against CNN / Cooper I would have come away convinced that as far as this story went Trump is the bad guy and Pelosi is the good guy. But then I listened to Hannity and balance was restored, but even as skeptical as I am, I was taken aback by the contrasting accounts they gave.

Different people will no doubt draw different conclusions and it would be fair to say none of us know the whole story. When it comes to Trump and Pelosi political postulating, the best we can come up with is an informed opinion. I think whatever our view the idea of the Executive and Legislative branches of government coming together on any important subject, as infrastructure is, is desirable and it is regrettable it did not happen irrespective that both sides claim to be righteous on the matter. As for Pelosi, Schumer and the Democratic Party, I am coming to a view which is definitely negative, yet remains work in progress, which I plan to share soon.