Can you trust anybody?

One WSJ opinion

Excerpt: "In 1964, according to Pew Research, 77% of Americans trusted the government to do what is right. Around that time, the Free Speech Movement’s Jack Weinberg coined the phrase, “Don’t trust anyone over 30.” Maybe that was the start of trust’s decline.

Lately, 22% of Americans trust government. Ouch. Lockdowns, social distancing, masks and school closings didn’t help. Neither did the Hunter Biden laptop coverup.

“Donald Trump” and “trust” rarely cohabitate the same sentence. Ask Elon Musk. The president has done some smart things and plenty of dumb ones. But on optics—which leads to trust or superficial trust anyway—he’s failed. The Trump administration’s crypto hustle, going after political enemies and Middle East deals don’t signal trustworthiness. Are 747s the new political-action committees? Once lost, trust is hard to regain.

Technology amplifies mistrust. Google’s new text-to-video system, Veo 3, enabled a strikingly realistic fake-news broadcast, with an artificial-intelligence-generated talking head saying, “The White House announces AI will now write all press briefings to ensure 100% factual incomprehensibility.” That sounds about right.

In 1994, Ukraine trusted Russia enough to send its nuclear weapons there for dismantling. No one will make that mistake again. ABC News’s Terry Moran asked Mr. Trump about Vladimir Putin, “Do you trust him?” The president replied, “I don’t trust you.” Great deflection, but an answer would be nice.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s recent Make America Healthy Again report was filled with inaccuracies and fake references. It sure smells like AI wrote it. And playing on such conspiracies as fluoride, red dye and seed oil combusts trust.

In the finance world, we have trusts to hold assets and trustees to manage them for beneficiaries. That’s a lot of trust. According to White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly, “President Trump’s assets are in a trust managed by his children. There are no conflicts of interest.” Notice she didn’t say “blind trust,” which is the norm for presidents. Many in government, and sadly in finance, live by the expression “no conflict, no interest.”'