President Trump: Trust But Verify

Watching the dance between the Iranian religiously inspired dictatorship and the United States and its allies, I keep getting reminded of President Ronald Reagan’s adage “trust but verify.”

May 27, 2026

Watching the dance between the Iranian religiously inspired dictatorship and the United States and its allies, I keep getting reminded of President Ronald Reagan’s adage “trust but verify.”

Suzanne Massie was an American expert on Soviet culture who advised President Reagan for several years. She told him the Russians like to talk in parables and that “trust but verify” was a common Russian phrase.

After long difficult negotiations, the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty was signed on Dec. 8, 1987. President Reagan used the phrase to emphasize that there would be extensive procedures put in place to verify the details of the treaty were being enforced.

Soviet Premier Mikhail Gorbachev responded that Reagan had said the phrase repeatedly. Reagan simply said, “I like it.”

In a similar pattern in 1983, I was talking to Freshman Congressman Connie Mack. He had been a bank president before running for Congress. He told me he took a course on bank management which emphasized “you get what you inspect, not what you expect.”

I cannot overstate the impact this simple rule had on me. Before I was elected to Congress, I was an assistant professor at a state college. I had one student intern who worked for three hours a week. I had no idea how to run large complex projects.

With Congressman, and later Sen., Mack’s help — and coaching from Peter Drucker and Edwards Deming — I built a pattern on defining every project back from success.

What were we trying to achieve? How could you measure success so you would know if you were achieving it? If what you were measuring was not leading to success, what did you have to change to get to that measure of success? How often were you going to inspect each activity? You get the picture.

If the Trump administration would apply these two simple principles with Iran, they would clarify 90 percent of the confusion which seems to be surrounding the current negotiations.

The first step is to insist that any document be written in a mutually agreed language. There should be no more video conferences and telephone calls that lead to vague announcements. These only collapse in 24 to 48 hours, with each side claiming it never agreed to the other side’s press release.

Second, every agreement should be enforceable and measurable. It is better to agree to fewer things and have them be understandable and enforceable than to have a mound of vague promises which simply collapse into rhetorical mush.

An agreement with a few small-but-real steps is a far better first building block than a much bigger agreement that is all fluff.

The 89 days of negotiation since the war began have been enormously frightening. The Trump administration needs a new system and approach if it is going to be successful.