特朗普的垮台（上） | 时代周刊
Inside Donald Trump’s Meltdown
When mucks things up, the first person to let him know is usually Republican Party boss . Almost every day, Trump picks up his cell phone to find Priebus on the line, urging him to quash some feud or clarify an incendiary remark.
每当特朗普捅了篓子，第一个告诉他的人通常是共和党的老板雷恩斯·普利巴斯。特朗普几乎每天都打手机找普利巴斯，督促他镇压争端或澄清煽动性言论。
The Wisconsin lawyer has been a dutiful sherpa to the Manhattan developer, guiding him through the dizzying altitude of the presidential race and lobbying the GOP to unite behind a figure who threatens its future.
这位威斯康星州的律师一直给曼哈顿的开发商特朗普打下手，引导他闯过高处不胜寒的总统大选，游说大老党团结在一个威胁党派未来的人物之下。
But every bond has its breaking point. For this partnership, the moment nearly arrived in early August. Priebus was on vacation when he learned that Trump had declined to endorse Paul Ryan, the Speaker of the House and a close friend.
可无论关系多铁，也有闹掰的时候。就这对搭档而言，这一刻差不多就发生在八月初。普利巴斯休假时得知特朗普拒绝支持众议长、亲密的朋友保罗·莱恩。
The chairman had a frank message for the nominee, according to two Republican officials briefed on the call. Priebus told Trump that internal GOP polling suggested he was on track to lose the election. Priebus explained to Trump that Priebus had a responsibility to the entire Republican Party, not just the presidential nominee.
两位共和党官员在电话中说，主席对提名人直言不讳。普利巴斯对特朗普说，共和党内部投票显示他要输掉选举。普利巴斯向特朗普解释，他对全党负责，而不只对总统提名人负责。
There is no doubt that the possibility Republicans will all but abandon Trump now haunts his struggling campaign. Since , Trump has done almost nothing right by traditional standards. He has picked fights with senior Republicans and Gold Star parents, invited Russian spies to meddle in U.S. democracy, appeared to joke about gun enthusiasts’ prematurely removing a U.S. President from office.
共和党人几乎要放弃特朗普了，毫无疑问，现在这种可能性出现在他艰难的竞选过程中。以传统标准看，自从克利夫兰的共和党大会召开以来，特朗普动辄出错。他挑衅共和党大佬和金星军功章获得者的父母，他邀请俄罗斯间谍干涉美国民主，还开玩笑说枪支爱好者该用枪杆子提前罢黜还没当上美国总统的希拉里。
He’s shuffled campaign messages like playing cards and left GOP elders fretting that he lacks the judgment to be Commander in Chief. During a dismal two-week stretch, he surrendered a narrow lead over Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton and now trails by an average of 8 points in recent nationwide polls.
他彻底打乱了选战议题，这让共和党大佬大为光火，认为他缺少成为三军总司令的判断力。在沉闷的两周冲刺中，他拱手让出对民主党提名人希拉里·克林顿的微弱领先优势，在最近的全国调查中，他平均落后8个百分点。
Trump has overcome rough patches before. But with fewer than 90 days until Nov. 8, he now faces a reckoning. There are daunting demographics to surmount. Allies complain of massive staff shortages in battleground states. And voters are skeptical of a billionaire reality star who seems to study the rules of campaigning only so he can break them.
特朗普曾历经艰难，可距离11月8日大选日不足90天，他要被清算了。他要争取的人口很多，其难度令人却步。他的同盟者抱怨在关键州的人手严重不足。一个研究竞选法则的真人秀亿万富翁能否打破法则，这令选民怀疑。
译注：研究竞选法则指特朗普的真人秀节目《学徒》。
Then there are the challenges entirely of Trump’s own making. More than three months after he effectively clinched the Republican nomination, he has yet to settle on a strategy to match the demands of a broader electorate.
有不少挑战纯属自找，稳获共和党提名人三个多月了，特朗普还未铆定迎合更广泛选民需求的策略。
In an interview with TIME on Aug. 9, the improvisational candidate sounded torn between conflicting pieces of advice, unsure of how much to hold back and when to let loose. “I am now listening to people that are telling me to be easier, nicer, be softer. And you know, that’s O.K., and I’m doing that,” he says. “Personally, I don’t know if that’s what the country wants.”
8月9日接受《时代》采访时，这位即兴候选人听上去被相互矛盾的各样建议撕裂，他不知道何时该收，何时该放。“人们告诉我，从容点，友善点，温和点。好吧，没问题，就这样。可在我看来，不知道这是不是国家所需要的。”
Polls show that Trump has failed to grasp one of the essential truths about this extraordinary contest: in a race between the two most unpopular major-party nominees in modern history, it’s in each campaign’s interest to train the spotlight on the other.
调查显示，在一场不同寻常的竞争中，特朗普没弄懂其中一个核心真相：这是现代历史上最不受欢迎的两个大党提名人之间的竞争，把聚光灯对准对方才符合各自阵营的利益。
Clinton wants the race to be about Trump. Which is what the publicity-addled Republican wants too. And why not? It worked for him in the Republican primaries. “I got 14 million votes and won most of the states,” he boasts. “I’m liking the way I ran in the primaries better.”
克林顿希望选战对准特朗普，在公关上犯糊涂的共和党竟然也抱有同样的想法。这有什么错呢？在共和党初选，这可帮了大忙。他吹嘘说：“我获得1400万选票，拿下大多数州，我更喜欢初选的方式。”
But the general election will likely be decided by groups of voters who are rarely among the cheering throngs at his rallies. This is a fact that Trump is only now starting to confront. “I don’t know why we’re not leading by a lot,” he admitted to a crowd of thousands in Jacksonville, Fla., on Aug. 3.
可兴许正是那些不在他的集会上欢呼的人们决定大选结果，可这一事实特朗普直到现在才有点明白。8月3日，他在佛罗里达州杰克逊维尔数千人的机会上承认说：“我不知道为什么竟没有大幅领先。”
One reason is that he’s getting crushed by minority voting blocs that Republican strategists have suggested courting, such as blacks, Hispanics and young women.
一个原因是他被少数群体投票集团压垮——黑人、拉美裔、年轻女性，共和党战略家曾建议去争取这些选民。
Ask him about these struggles and the braggadocio fades to fatalism. “All I can do is tell the truth,” he says. “If that does it, that’s great. And if that doesn’t do it, that’s fine too.” Even the best salesman must bow to the realities of the marketplace.
问问他如何应对这些挑战时，自吹自擂就退缩成了宿命论。“我只能说实话，如果人们听得进去，那很棒，如果听不进去，也只好如此。”就算最出色的销售员也必须向真实的市场低头。
The trouble started before Trump even left Cleveland. Twelve hours after accepting his party’s nomination, he arrived in a half-empty hotel ballroom for a victory lap. It was a chance to thank supporters and bask in the previous night’s afterglow. Free’s “All Right Now” echoed through the speakers. And then, as Priebus’ team watched live from their hotel a few blocks away, everything went wrong.
特朗普还没离开克利夫兰，麻烦就开始了。接受提名12小时后，他到达酒店会厅主持答谢仪式，一方面借此机会感谢支持者，同时也沉浸在前一晚获胜的余晖中。自由乐队的《感觉正好》响彻全场，当时普利巴斯的团队就在几个街区外的酒店里观看直播，结果一切都搞砸了。
Two evenings before, Trump had crushed the last vestiges of Republican opposition, orchestrating an outburst of boos as Senator Ted Cruz of Texas delivered the ultimate snub: refusing to endorse his onetime rival. But for Trump, that victory wasn’t enough. Rather than mend fences, he told fans he didn’t want the GOP runner-up’s endorsement and might bankroll a super PAC to kill Cruz’s career.
两晚前，特朗普扫清了党内最后一支残余的反对力量，当时德克萨斯参议员克鲁兹实施了最恶劣的倾轧，拒绝支持他曾经的对手，众人对克鲁兹大喝倒彩。可对特朗普而言，那样的胜利还不够，他非但不去修复篱笆，反而告诉支持者他不需要这位共和党亚军的支持，还要出钱资助一个超级政治行动委员会毁掉克鲁兹的政治生涯。
Apropos of nothing, he revived a dormant controversy involving an unflattering picture of the Texan’s wife, boudoir shots of Trump’s and a tiny super PAC that no longer exists. He once again linked Cruz’s father to the Kennedy assassination, a false conspiracy fed by a 50-year-old photo published in a supermarket tabloid.
他无缘无故地再次挑起一场已经熄火的争论，其中涉及克鲁兹妻子的照片，他的妻子姿色平庸，还有特朗普妻子的闺房照以及一个不复存在且微不足道的超级政治行动委员会。他再次把克鲁兹的父亲和刺杀肯尼迪联系起来，这是一张老照片中的阴谋论调，一份在超市售卖的小报离谱地刊载了这张50年前的照片。
For good measure, Trump fired a parting shot at Ohio Governor John Kasich, another vanquished rival whose political machine could provide a boost in a critical swing state.
特朗普还无事生非，向失败的对手俄亥俄州长约翰·卡西齐补了一枪，这位对手的政治机器本可以帮助他在关键的摇摆州多拿些选票。
The riot of recrimination was a vivid reminder that some of Trump’s worst traits as a candidate–paper-thin skin, an absence of discipline, a bottomless capacity to nurse grudges–are not going away. Republicans waiting for the long-promised presidential pivot seemed like characters in a Beckett play, trapped in Trump’s theater of the absurd.
大肆揭丑生动反映了特朗普做候选人时表现出来的恶劣品性并未收敛，他面皮枯槁，不懂自律，攻讦他人以至全无底线。共和党人一直说要有个当总统的主心骨，可他们苦苦等待，宛如贝克特戏剧中的人物，被困在特朗普的滑稽剧场里。
译注：隐约源自戏剧家贝克特的荒诞剧《等待戈多》。
As Democrats hurled criticism during their convention, Trump tried to compete with press conferences. But his counterprogramming verged on the bizarre. In a striking breach of protocol, he urged Russia on July 27 to hack Clinton’s emails.
遭到民主党人在民主党大会上的批评，特朗普试图召开新闻发布会予以反击，可他的对抗近乎怪异。7月27日，他全然不顾规则，敦促俄罗斯窃取克林顿的电子邮件。
“Russia, if you’re listening, I hope you’re able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing,” Trump said, essentially urging a geopolitical adversary to commit espionage against his opponent. Establishment-minded Republicans phoned one another. Was this really happening?
特朗普说：“俄罗斯，如果你听的到，我希望你们能找到丢失的30000条电子邮件”，这相当于让一个地缘政治敌人向他的对手从事间谍活动。循规蹈矩的共和党人相互打电话询问，真有这样的事吗？
The next night, a Virginia lawyer named Khizr Khan stepped to the microphone in Philadelphia. The Pakistani émigré turned American citizen spoke of his son Humayun, a U.S. Army captain killed by a suicide bomber in Iraq in 2004. “If it was up to Donald Trump,” he thundered, his son “never would have been in America.” Brandishing a pocket-size copy of the Constitution, he addressed Trump directly: “You have sacrificed nothing and no one.”
第二天晚间，一名叫吉泽尔·汗弗吉尼亚律师走上费城讲台。这名巴基斯坦裔美国公民说到自己的儿子胡马雍——2004年在伊拉克被自杀性炸弹炸死的美国陆军上尉。他大声喊，“如果是特朗普”，他的儿子“压根不会在美国”。挥舞着袖珍宪法，他直接向特朗普喊话：“你什么都没有牺牲，谁也没有失去。”
The return volley was predictable. Trump seemed to question whether Khan’s wife Ghazala, who had stood silently alongside her husband, was barred from speaking because of her religion. “It’s Queens,” one Republican operative mused, invoking Trump’s birthplace. “If they hit you, you hit back.” A stirring moment became a multiday feud. And Trump lost.
特朗普的回击不出所料，特朗普质问汗的妻子加扎拉是否因为宗教原因被禁言，因为她安静地站在丈夫身旁。一个共和党党务人员沉思着说：“这就是皇后区”——他提及特朗普的出生地，“他们打你，你就打他们。”可一时恼火升级为旷日争斗，特朗普还打输了。
More than 70% of respondents in a Washington Post/ABC News poll said they disapproved of his handling of the dispute, including 59% of Republicans. The emergence of the Muslim parents, blistering Trump’s policies through the scrim of their own patriotism, was more than karmic irony. It was strategic success. A hook had been dangled by the Clinton campaign that he could not help but bite.
华盛顿邮报/ABC联合调查显示，超过70%的受访者表示他们不赞同特朗普处理争端的方式，其中59%是共和党人。穆斯林父母登场，透过自己爱国主义的窗纱抨击特朗普政策，这并非宿命的反讽，这是战略性成功。这是克林顿阵营挂出来的钩子，他忍不住要上钩。
Trump goes with his gut, and when his instincts betray him, no one can rein him in. “No one puts words in his mouth, and nobody decides what he says other than him,” says longtime adviser Roger Stone. “Politics is nine-tenths discipline.”
特朗普全凭意气，要是他的直觉背叛了自己，没人拽得住他。资深顾问罗杰·斯通说：“除了他自己，没人能让他说什么，没人能决定他该说什么。可政治中十分八九要靠自律”。
For party officials, the Trump campaign has become like the sign inside factories: X days without an accident, with the tally regularly resetting to zero. “I think what he wants to do and what he does do are two different things,” says another senior GOP official.
对党内官员而言，特朗普竞选有点像工厂里的标语：……天无事故，一朝出事全归零。一名资深共和党官员称：“我认为他想做的和他做的完全两码事。”
And so more missteps followed. The campaign announced a 13-member economic advisory council with zero women and just three trained economists. The self-styled law-and-order candidate attacked fire marshals for turning away supporters when his venues hit capacity.
失策频频发生，选举团队公布了一个13个成员的经济顾问理事会，其中没有妇女，受过训练的经济学家只有三人。这位自封懂法的候选人还攻击消防局长，指责他在场馆满员后驱离支持者。
At a rally, he described watching a U.S. plane deliver $400 million in cash to Iran in exchange for the release of American hostages. Trump’s own campaign acknowledged that he was wrong; it was footage of the prisoners being freed in Geneva. The candidate repeated the canard anyway, goaded by an audience that bought the story.
一次集会上，他说他看到一架美国飞机把4亿美元现金送到伊朗，换回美国人质。特朗普自己的选举团队承认他说错了，那是日内瓦释放囚犯的视频。可候选人仍然以讹传讹，因为听众们买账。
When a chorus of criticism rained down from Republicans, Trump lashed back. He slammed Senators John McCain of Arizona, the party’s 2008 nominee, and Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire. Both are incumbents locked in tight re-election races.
共和党人对他的批评异口同声，如雨点般砸下来，特朗普反击了。他抨击亚利桑那参议员、2008年共和党提名人约翰·麦凯恩和新罕布什尔参议员凯利·阿约特，两人都埋头谋求在各自州再次当选。
He trolled Ryan a week before the House Speaker’s contentious primary, withholding an endorsement in nearly the same language Ryan had once deployed against him. “I’m not quite there yet,” Trump said coyly.
众议院议长莱恩在威斯康星州的初选饱受争议，因为一周前，特朗普上网发文攻击莱恩，不支持莱恩参选，并以彼之道还施彼身——“我还不至于支持他。”他羞涩地说。
For Republicans loyal to the party but scornful of their nominee, the Trump campaign was increasingly becoming a moral conundrum. As if to goad them, Trump even began to call the integrity of the American democratic process into question. “I’m afraid the election is going to be rigged,” he said in Ohio. “I have to be honest.”
对于忠诚于党却鄙视提名人的共和党员而言，特朗普的竞选日益成为一桩道德难题。好像故意为了刺激他们，特朗普甚至开始质疑美国民主程序的信誉。他在俄亥俄说：“我担心选举要被操纵，我必须说实话。”
未完待续，关注公号继续阅读
词汇
muck up
make a mess of 搞糟
例句：But why let such rational analysis muck up this grand, twisting saga?（《华尔街日报》7月10日）
干嘛让这么理性的分析把这段宏大曲折的传奇搞砸呢？
incendiary
arousing to action or rebellion 煽动性的
例句：Things will get darker, more incendiary, more preposterous.（《西雅图时报》8月19日）
事情变得更黑暗，更具煽动性，更荒谬。
dizzy
having or causing a whirling sensation; liable to falling 令人眩晕的
例句：The number of controversies, reckless statements, and outright lies from Trump this week was dizzying.（《纽约客》8月13日）
本周特朗普引发的争议、鲁莽言论和彻头彻尾的谎言，数量简直多的令人眩晕。
endorse
approve of 同意批准
例句：Trump’s comments, though, could be payback for Cruz refusing to endorsethe billionaire businessman during last month’s Republican National Convention.（《西雅图时报》8月24日）
特朗普的言论回敬了克鲁兹，因为克鲁兹拒绝在上月的共和党大会上支持这位亿万富翁。
bizzare
conspicuously or grossly unconventional or unusual 怪异的
例句：Comparing Donald Trump to Winston Churchill is insulting and bizarre. （《华盛顿邮报》8月23日）
将特朗普比作丘吉尔是侮辱性的，也很怪异。
rough patches
一段艰难时期
例句：His marriage was going through a rough patch.
他的婚姻正处于一段艰难时期。
canard
a deliberately misleading fabrication. 讹传
例句：The platform raises an old canard, saying that “delinquency in paying taxes … has been too common in some segments of the civil service.”（《华盛顿邮报》7月19日）
这一议程借用了流传已久的谎言，说“纳税不端行为在某些行政部门很普遍”。