Thank you for this. "Trust but verify" never made any sense to me at all. If you have to verify, then there is no trust.
Ensuring that there hasn't been a misunderstanding makes a lot more sense. "Verify" is still a misleading word in that equation, though.
I don’t like that “but”. It implies trust and verification are opposites. To the contrary, verification is there to ensure that trust is not hurt in case of a mistake, misunderstanding, or whatever. “Trust and verify” is much better.