Reading between the lines of Donald Trump’s muddled words is a challenge for most – here’s how political journalists do it

The US president went from declaring that the NHS would ‘absolutely’ be included in any post-Brexit trade deal, to backtracking hours later – but after all the confusion, the gist of his goals were clear

When writing about politics, there are certain conventions it’s generally useful to follow.

One is that when words come out of a politician’s mouth, they have some sort of meaning.

They may be designed to hide a truth or send a signal to one group or another. But they are there, on the record to be interrogated and challenged.