The election of Donald Trump as President has certainly turned many notions and plans on their ears, if not upside down. The entrenched pundits and influencers inside the Beltway now act to forge new networks of relevance, but with whom? The media certainly took it on the chin in the election, with a few hard body punches, and, to top it off, they spent a lot of time stepping on their own feet. 

Donald Trump is a lot of things, according to the press and the pundits, and one of those curious things is his action (or Tweeting) in unexpected ways that defy the status quo and the common wisdom. Sometimes, it seems, these have no other purpose than to keep the media guessing and to help them fill time on all those talk shows. While previous administrative transitions seemed predictable and perhaps boring, this one poses one serious problem for businesspeople. How will they know what's really happening? In these past few months traditional media sources seemed to be wrong, or misbehaving, or were cheerleaders against his election.

That's the reason behind this column's headline. It will be hard to tell what is going on not just in public, but in all those upcoming backroom negotiations. Many of those private meetings are likely to be running in a direction that is opposite from what is in the news. Say one thing, negotiate another. An example: the President-elect has plans for infrastructure spending, always beloved by legislators of both parties. It has often been the case where elected officials are stridently against such activities for any variety of reasons, until, of course, one of the projects is directed to their district. Trump the dealmaker is certain to use infrastructure spending as a means of winning cooperation for other aspects of his agenda. What's that saying about not wanting to watch the sausage being made?