Jeff Sessions is taking a lot of heat for conversations he had with the Russian ambassador since he had testified that he hadn’t had contact with Russia. His defense is that the question was about having contact with Russia regarding the campaign and that his communication was wholly unrelated to that topic. I’m not writing this to take a side because I don’t necessarily have all the information. Nor is what Sessions did or did not do the thing that I’m most concerned about.

President Trump has deemed the whole debacle to be a partisan witch hunt targeting Sessions. While Sessions is at the forefront of people’s complaints at the moment, he is not the truest reason that people are so frustrated. The real problem is that many people right now do not trust Trump’s administration.

When I first saw the news of Sessions, I did not have any doubt that he had done something unethical because I’ve become quite accustomed to people in Trump’s administration saying or doing unethical things over the past couple months. Yes, the Trump administration always has a defense and puts out the fires as they arise, but they fail to recognize that the scorching criticisms are a pattern. Well, that’s not quite true. The Trump administration certainly feels attacked no matter what they do. While Democrats and Republicans are known to attack each other, it certainly seems as though these attacks have heightened in our current political climate and deserve consideration.

Has the Trump administration ever stopped to consider that maybe if people despise everything they do that they’re doing something wrong? Yes, our nation is deeply divided, but that does not mean that liberals are not well-founded in their attacks. It is certainly not grounds for their attacks to be dismissed as witch hunts and repeatedly ignored.

In President Trump’s joint address to Congress, he said “A new chapter of American Greatness is now beginning. A new national pride is sweeping across our Nation. And a new surge of optimism is placing impossible dreams firmly within our grasp. What we are witnessing today is the Renewal of the American Spirit.” I find it insulting to hear such a positive diagnosis of the state of our nation when so many people have so little faith in the current administration. Either Trump does not know that, which means he is not listening, or he is lying, which is a callous denial of the many problems people are facing in this transition to a new administration.

Jeff Sessions is the most recent in a long chain of people in the Trump administration to come under fire, and by the time this is published there may be a new figure under attack. I would urge people to research carefully the evidence regarding each accusation and to determine whether one should truly be found guilty. That involves giving people the benefit of the doubt. That involves following the crucial tenet of our criminal justice system, that people are innocent until proven guilty.

However, another tenet of our nation is freedom of the press. The press is where people must turn for information on each scandal that arises, but the leader of our nation is telling us we cannot trust the press. Certain press outlets are being denied access to information because Trump doesn’t like the way they make him look from time to time. All this does is give people another reason not to trust the administration, because they are controlling what we see insofar as it’s in their best interest.

Until Trump’s administration acknowledges, in words and by actions, what’s at the root of so much recent controversy- the fact that reasonable people do not trust them- they will not benefit from bipartisan cooperation. I also fear that until they are able to acknowledge that people do not trust them, they will not listen to anything that anyone across the aisle has to say.

Yes, we should trust our President, but trust is a two way street. Until President Trump trusts that Democrats have worthwhile perspectives on policy matters, he will not be trusted to do what’s best for the nation as a whole. Ideally, everyone in government would want what’s best for the nation as a whole. I honestly don’t know that that’s the case. However, if we operate off that premise, perhaps we can find some semblance of trust.