几个月前，马可·卢比奥的职责范围就已经达到了近乎荒谬的程度。这位佛罗里达州的共和党人确实担任着国务卿的职务，但由于唐纳德·特朗普缺乏人事安排方面的创造力，这仅仅只是他众多职责的开始罢了。
The scope of Marco Rubio’s professional responsibilities reached comedic levels months ago. The Florida Republican is, of course, the secretary of state, but thanks to Donald Trump and the president’s lack of personnel creativity, that’s just the start.
特朗普还指派卢比奥兼任美国国际开发署的代理署长、国家档案馆的代理馆长，以及负责2035年世界博览会筹备工作的负责人。7月，《纽约时报》发表了一篇引人注目的报道，指出卢比奥实际上已经“掌控”了委内瑞拉的局势，成为了该国的“事实上的总督”。在那些备受关注、权力重大的联邦职位上，卢比奥同时承担着比美国现代历史上任何人都多的职责——人们因此给他起了个绰号，叫他“万事通国务卿”。不过，我还没有提到他最重要的职责呢……本周早些时候，《MS NOW》报道称：根据一位不愿公开姓名的美国官员的说法，唐纳德·特朗普已任命国务卿马可·卢比奥为他的国家安全顾问。这一任命使卢比奥此前一直以代理身份担任的职务正式成为永久性的职位。
Trump has tasked Rubio with serving as the acting administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development, the acting archivist for the National Archives and the chair of the administration’s World Expo 2035 preparations. The New York Times published a striking report in July noting that Rubio is also, for all intents and purposes, “running” Venezuela, serving as the country’s “de facto viceroy.” When it comes to high-profile and powerful federal offices, Rubio is simultaneously wearing more hats than anyone in modern American history — he’s been nicknamed the “Secretary of Everything” — and I haven’t yet mentioned his big job. MS NOW reported earlier this week: President Donald Trump has appointed Secretary of State Marco Rubio as his national security adviser, according to a U.S. official who was granted anonymity to discuss staffing moves. The appointment makes permanent a position that Rubio has held in an acting capacity.
当卢比奥在5月份接替迈克·沃尔茨时，人们普遍认为这只是临时安排，因为卢比奥仍同时担任着国务卿（即国家首席外交官）以及多个大型国际机构的负责人等职务。但这些猜测都是错误的。本周，卢比奥头衔中的“代理”字样终于被删除了，这意味着他的“白宫国家安全顾问”职位已正式转为永久性职位。
When Rubio succeeded Mike Waltz in May, it was widely assumed that it would be a temporary assignment, since the secretary still had all of his other jobs, including serving as the nation’s chief diplomat and running a giant international Cabinet agency. Those assumptions were wrong. This week, the “acting” was removed from his “acting White House national security adviser” title.
一个显而易见的问题是：一个人怎么可能同时承担多项全职工作呢？答案当然是：这根本不可能。但更值得深思的是：特朗普似乎对此毫不在意——尽管他本应该关心这个问题才对。
The obvious question is how in the world one person could be expected to simultaneously do multiple full-time jobs, and the answer is that it’s impossible. But there’s a broader point to keep in mind: By all appearances, Trump doesn’t care — even though he should.
这倒不是因为总统认为卢比奥在同时处理多项任务和分清主次方面有多么了不起，以至于他能够兼任国务卿和白宫国家安全顾问并游刃有余。相反，这似乎是一种情况：特朗普对卢比奥并没有抱太大期望，因为他根本不在乎外交，而且他本身就不认为国家安全顾问是一个严肃的职位。早在2019年9月，《纽约时报》就曾援引外交关系委员会研究员马丁·英迪克的话指出，在约翰·博尔顿离开白宫后，特朗普“将成为他自己的外交政策顾问”。英迪克曾在克林顿政府时期担任外交官和国家安全委员会官员。
It’s not as if the president believes Rubio is somehow so amazing at multitasking and compartmentalization that he can excel as both secretary of state and the White House national security adviser. Rather, this appears to be a situation in which Trump doesn’t really expect much of Rubio because he doesn’t much care about diplomacy, and he doesn’t recognize the role of national security adviser as a serious position anyway As far back as September 2019, The New York Times quoted Martin Indyk, a fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations who served as a diplomat and National Security Council official during the Clinton administration, noting that in the wake of John Bolton’s exit from the White House, Trump “is going to be his own foreign policy adviser.”
几天后，总统对记者表示，他认为国家安全顾问这份工作“很有趣”而且“很简单”，并补充说：“你们知道为什么简单吗？因为所有的决定都是我作的。”换句话说，正在上演的并非是给一位日理万机的内阁部长强加过多负担，而是白宫最重要的职位之一正在走向逐渐消亡。
Days later, the president told reporters that he saw the national security adviser job as “fun” and “easy,” adding, “You know why it’s easy? Because I make all the decisions.” What’s unfolding, in other words, isn’t the overburdening of a busy Cabinet secretary; it’s the gradual demise of one of the most important positions in the White House.