尽管这些广告宣传极其厚颜无耻且带有威权色彩，但它们似乎很可能会适得其反。
But as brazen and authoritarian as these ad spots are, they seem likely to backfire.
最新消息：你正在为白宫推行的共和党中期选举宣传买单。最近，三则选举季广告登陆各大电视台，将唐纳德·特朗普总统塑造成一个被共产主义围困的美国的救世主，以及美国自由意志传统的捍卫者，再次让这位三军统帅的面孔铺满伟大而优秀的电视共和国。但这些广告并没有按照一个挂名超级政治行动委员会提供的标准资助免责声明来播出，而是在结尾处淡出一行字幕：“由美国政府支付。”
This just in: You are paying for the rollout of the GOP’s midterm messaging from the White House. A trio of election-season spots casting President Donald Trump as the savior of a communist-besieged America and the defender of its libertarian birthright hit the airwaves recently, once more splattering the commander in chief’s visage across the great and good republic of television. But instead of running with the standard funding disclaimer supplied by a dummy super PAC, these ads fade out under a screen legend that reads “paid for by the US government.”
这些广告明显违反了拨款法，该法禁止联邦政府花钱用于“宣传或政治宣传目的”。马里兰州民主党众议员、众议院司法委员会资深成员杰米·拉斯金还在X平台上发文称，白宫这轮广告攻势“可能构成重罪级别的刑事盗窃，以及为政治竞选目的挪用政府财产”，此外还违反了《哈奇法》，该法禁止政府官员在联邦财产上进行竞选活动。
The ads are clear violations of appropriations law prohibiting the federal government from spending money for “publicity or propaganda purposes.”Maryland Democratic Representative Jamie Raskin, the ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee, also argued in a post on X that the White House ad offensive “may be felony criminal theft and conversion of government property for political campaign purposes,” in addition to violating the Hatch Act, which forbids government officials from electioneering on federal property.
如今，报道特朗普政府犯罪行为后的常态是，白宫以美其名曰的社交媒体嘲讽作为回应。针对媒体就上周三首次播出的第一则广告提出的询问——该广告中特朗普在JMSN歌曲《Love Me》的合唱声中，发表了一段麦卡锡式的长篇攻击，渲染社会主义和共产主义这两个并驾齐驱的威胁——白宫发言人荒谬地声称，这是一系列旨在激发爱国热情的“公益广告”的一部分。
As is now the norm for reports on Trump administration criminality, the White House responded with glorified social-media trolling. In response to press queries about the initial spot that first aired last Wednesday, which features Trump delivering a McCarthyite tirade about the yoked menaces of socialism and communism, over a chorus of the JMSN song “Love Me,” White House flacks claimed, farcically, that it was part of a series of “public service announcements” designed to whip up patriotic fervor.
“这则广告具有教育意义，并且毫不掩饰地爱国，”一名白宫发言人以标志性的近乎霸凌的腔调抱怨道，“我们应该为我们的国家感到自豪。”换句话说，特朗普政府试图通过进行更多宣传，来驳斥对其从事非法宣传的指控。
“The ad is educational and unapologetically patriotic,” a White House spokesperson whinged in a trademark quasi-bullying flourish. “We should be proud of our country.”In other words, the Trump administration seeks to dismiss charges that it’s engaging in illegal propaganda by engaging in more propaganda.
更重要的是，其表面上的民族自豪感信息被特朗普对共产主义接管国家这一幻影威胁的疯狂渲染所明显削弱，这些言论配以他在集会和竞选活动中快速剪辑的镜头：这里传达的首要信息不是爱国主义，而是好斗的偏执。这段广告在军用飞机飞过头顶的帝国意象中达到高潮，UFC首席执行官达纳·怀特称赞总统是“我见过的最坚强、最有韧性的人，没有什么能阻止他为他深爱的国家而战。”
What’s more, its ostensible message of national pride is distinctly undercut by Trump’s unhinged invocation of the phantom menace of a threatened communist takeover of the country, aired against rapid-cut footage of him at rallies and campaign events: The overriding message here isn’t patriotism but militant paranoia. The spot culminates in the imperial imagery of military aircraft flying overhead as UFC chief executive Dana White praises the president as “the toughest, most resilient person I’ve ever met, and nothing is going to stop him from fighting for the country he loves so much.”
在所有这些指挥与控制的画面中，唯一突出的爱国情感被归结于这个国家的最高领导人。这段广告远非教育美国公民热爱国家，而是反复强调配乐的核心信息：“爱我。”（JMSN本人在社交媒体上对该广告作出回应，威胁采取法律行动，写道“总统未经询问非法使用了这首歌。”）在第二段广告中，白宫名义上试图营造一个更传统的公民背景，展示特朗普在拉什莫尔山发表纪念美国建国二百五十周年的讲话。
Amid all of this command-and-control footage, the only salient patriotic sentiment is that ascribed to the country’s maximum leader. Far from schooling American citizens in the love of country, the spot harps on the central message of the soundtrack: “Love Me.” (JMSN, for his part, has threatened legal action in his own social-media response to the ad, writing that “the President illegally use[d] the song without asking.”)
其中大量套话式地援引了国家的自由传统，但这里的主要看点同样是特朗普2024年竞选的核心主题：“这是美国黄金时代的开始。”同样值得注意的是，2026年拉什莫尔山讲话标志着特朗普和共和党红色恐慌式中期选举运动的开端，总统以纯粹幻觉般的方式宣称，“共产主义是对美国自由的致命威胁。”
In its second spot, the White House notionally sought to establish a more conventional civic backdrop, featuring Trump delivering his remarks commemorating the nation’s semiquincentennial anniversary at Mt. Rushmore. There’s much boilerplate invocation of the country’s heritage of liberty, but here, too, the main takeaway is the central theme of Trump’s 2024 campaign: “This is the beginning of the Golden Age in America.”It’s also noteworthy that the 2026 Mt.
“这是对我们国家最大的威胁——甚至比第一次世界大战、第二次世界大战、珍珠港事件，以及9·11事件还要严重。”（特朗普曾在另一场7月4日的演讲中，利用类似的场景来宣扬所谓的“左翼文化革命”所带来的危险；当时正值“黑人的命也是命”运动的高潮期。他再次借助爱国主义象征来煽动民众，散布一系列带有偏见的言论。尽管他存在明显的认知缺陷，但他始终坚持使用那些预先准备好的、旨在制造恐慌的论点。）
Rushmore address marked the introduction of Trump and the GOP’s red-baiting midterms crusade, with the president announcing, in pure hallucinatory fashion, that “Communism is a mortal threat to American liberty. It is the greatest threat to our country, including World War I, World War II, Pearl Harbor or even 9/11.” (Trump had also used the same setting to publicize the alleged runaway threat of “left-wing cultural revolution” during yet another Fourth of July address at the height of the Black Lives Matter uprising, again deploying the symbolism of patriotic belonging to unleash a barrage of propagandistic persecution fantasies. For all his manifest cognitive shortcomings, the guy never deviates from his prefab frighten-the-horses talking points.)
毫无疑问，那些被这些言论所吸引的极端“MAGA”支持者（这些言论最初出现在极端“MAGA”倾向的媒体Newsmax上）会立刻注意到特朗普这种类似罗伊·科恩式的煽动言论。
There’s little doubt that the hardcore legion of MAGA faithful targeted by these appeals, which began running on the ultra-MAGA network Newsmax, would immediately pick up on these visual callouts to Trump’s lurches into Roy Cohn–branded demagogy.
克里斯·莱曼（Chris Lehmann）的其他文章：无论如何，这第三部由公共资金资助的“让美国再次伟大”（MAGA）宣传片，彻底终结了关于它们是“公益广告”的空洞废话。这部短片是特朗普此前在“真实社交”（Truth Social）平台上实时发布的2024年竞选宣传语的修改版。
Also by Chris Lehmann In any event, the third installation in these publicly funded pieces of MAGA agitprop definitely lays to rest all the empty blather about their serving as PSAs. This one is a modified version of a 2024 campaign pitch that Trump had posted in real time on his Truth Social account.
“这是最后的决战。有你们在我身边，我们将摧毁深层政府。我们将把战争贩子从我们的政府中驱逐出去，”特朗普在一段颗粒感十足的黑白影像中威胁道，他毫无自知之明地走在自己于白宫西翼柱廊设立的“总统名人堂”中。
“This is the final battle. With you at my side, we will demolish the deep state. We will expel the warmongers from our government,” Trump threatens with zero self-awareness over grainy black-and-white footage of him striding purposefully through the “Presidential Walk of Fame” he installed in the White House’s West Wing Colonnade.
“我们将驱逐全球主义者，赶走共产主义者、马克思主义者和法西斯主义者。我们将抛弃那些憎恨我们国家的病态政治阶层。我们将击溃假新闻媒体，我们将一劳永逸地将美国从这些恶棍手中解放出来。”
“We will drive out the globalists, cast out the communists, Marxists, and fascists. We will throw off the sick political class that hates our country. We will rout the fake news media and we will liberate America from these villains once and for all.”
这显然不是那种为中学公民课制作的温和宣传片，甚至也不是冷战时期“美国之音”的老式广播。这些由纳税人资助的广告，清晰地表达了特朗普本月初在达拉斯中期选举大会上向人群宣布的首要指令：“假装我正在参选。”
Not exactly the stuff of a State Department filmstrip produced for anodyne consumption in middle-school civics classes—or even a vintage Cold War Voice of America broadcast. These taxpayer-funded spots are a clear expression of the prime directive Trump declared to the crowd at his midterm convention in Dallas earlier this month: “Pretend like I’m on the ballot.”
正因如此，尽管这些广告的来源极其非法且具有威权色彩，但它们似乎很可能会适得其反。特朗普如今极其不受欢迎，通货膨胀、他在伊朗发动的战争、他对美国劳动者经济困境的冷漠、他猖獗的盗贼统治式私相授受，以及他那毫无头绪的保护主义供应链操纵，正使他的总统支持率跌至乔治·W·布什灾难性的第二任期末期以来的最低谷。
And that’s why, as brazenly illegal and authoritarian as the provenance of these spots is, they seem likely to backfire. Trump is now stupendously unpopular, with inflation, his war in Iran, his callous indifference to the financial plight of working Americans, his rampant kleptocratic self-dealing, and his clueless protectionist manipulation of the nation’s supply chain all plunging him toward the lowest depths in presidential approval polling plumbed during the last days of George W. Bush’s disastrous second term.
他这些充满偏执色彩的辩护，其背后的真实意图与他强行在“让美国再次伟大”（MAGA）运动的核心地带大肆建设人工智能数据中心的霸道行径如出一辙：无论我脑子里冒出什么财阀式的胡言乱语，你们都得照单全收，并且还得表现得乐在其中——如果你们还想过安稳日子的话。
The real messaging behind these high-paranoid vindications of his maximal power are equivalent to his thuggish efforts to force the runaway buildout of AI data centers on the heartland redoubts of MAGA Nation: You’ll take whatever plutocratic bullshit flits across my brainpan and like it—if you know what’s good for you.
事实上，白宫厚颜无耻地采用这种“真理报”式的电视宣传攻势，旨在提醒MAGA的忠实信徒们：特朗普过去是、现在依然是他们指定的救世主。但这恰恰暴露了其政治上的软弱——这是一种明显的迹象，表明特朗普这一套核心说辞在党内基本盘中已不再像过去那样奏效。《政治报》报道称，即便是那些最死忠的MAGA“乔”们——那些不远万里奔赴全国各地，只为在特朗普集会和官方活动中占据前排位置的超级粉丝——也开始对他的执政记录感到明显不满。
Indeed, the White House’s brazen Pravda-style adoption of this televisual campaign to remind the MAGA faithful that Trump is, and always has been, their designated savior is actually a sign of political weakness—a telltale admission that this fundamental Trumpian pitch isn’t landing as it used to with the party’s base. Politico reports that even the diehard MAGA “Joes”—the Trump superfans who trek across the country to be seen in the front row at his rallies and official events—are decidedly souring on the man’s governing record.
特丽莎·霍普（Trisha Hope）曾是特朗普的狂热支持者，她第一次大选时就对他死心塌地，甚至出版了一本标题直白得令人心酸的书《推文而已》（Just the Tweets），并用销售所得资助自己去前排摇旗呐喊。如今，她称特朗普为“骗子和谎言家”。她列举了特朗普在杰弗里·爱泼斯坦（Jeffrey Epstein）文件以及伊朗战争问题上屡次未能坦诚交代的事实，并表示：“如果我们输掉中期选举，而他再次被弹劾，我将走进国会大厅支持弹劾。”
Trisha Hope, a Joe who fell so hard for Trump the first time out that she published a book with the sadly self-explanatory title Just the Tweets, and used the proceeds from its sales to fund her front-row cheerleading expeditions, now calls Trump “a fraud and a liar.”Citing his serial failures to come clean on the Jeffrey Epstein papers as well as the war in Iran, she says, “If we do lose the midterms and he is impeached again, I will be walking the halls of Congress in support of that impeachment.”
“乔”组织的创始人之一里克·弗雷泽（Rick Frazier）也表达了同样的幻灭感。他说：“爱泼斯坦的罪行，还有向军工复合体输送利益……这些对我来说都是绝对无法接受的底线。我已经打算十一月不去投票了。”如果这种情绪已经蔓延到了特朗普集会的前排，那么即便全世界的危言耸听和反共宣传，也无法消除这种疑虑在会场后排的扩散。
Rick Frazier, one of the founding Joes, expresses the same sense of disenchantment. “Epstein crimes and feeding the industrial military complex…those are big noes for me,” he says. “I’m to the point of not going to the polls in November.”If that sentiment is creeping into the front row of Trump rallies, all the alarmist commie-baiting propaganda in the world isn’t going to dispel the spread of similar misgivings in the back of the room.
今年9月，成为持续捐赠者。随着右翼势力再次给人扣上“红色”帽子，以及唐纳德·特朗普利用令人不寒而栗的《国家安全总统备忘录7号》将左翼政治组织活动入罪，我们正亲眼看到麦卡锡主义卷土重来。
Become a Sustaining Donor This September Between the reemergence of right-wing red-baiting and Donald Trump’s use of the chilling National Security Presidential Memorandum–7 to criminalize left political organizing, we’re seeing McCarthyism reborn before our eyes.
对民主的这种侵蚀不能被忽视，也不能指望它自行消失。抵抗它，需要在威胁和压迫面前展现勇气，坚持对真相的承诺，并始终坚信我们能够——也必将——驱散这片黑暗。
This assault on democracy cannot be ignored or wished away. Resisting it requires bravery in the face of threats and repression, a steadfast commitment to the truth, and the unwavering belief that we can—and will—overcome this darkness.
要赢得这场斗争，我们必须拥有独立的媒体，澄清事实，揭露腐败和滥用权力，推动建立一个人人享有正义与尊严的政治。
We must have an independent media that sets the record straight, unearths corruption and abuses of power, and advances a politics of justice and dignity for all if we’re to win this fight.
这就是我今天写信给你的原因。今年9月，《国家》杂志需要新增100名每月定期捐款者，以支撑我们的进步新闻事业。你的捐助将让下一篇调查报道、下一篇敢于直言真相的专栏，以及下一篇开创性文章成为可能。
That’s why I’m writing to you today. This September, The Nation needs to add 100 monthly donors to sustain our progressive journalism. Your contribution makes the next investigative report, the next truth-speaking column, and the next pathbreaking essay all possible.
希望您今天就通过定期捐款支持我们的工作。如果您每月捐款10美元或以上，我们将寄送一张全新的“新闻自由，不容干涉！”贴纸，以感谢您对我们事业的支持。请今天就捐款。继续前行卡塔琳娜·范登赫维尔《国家》杂志主编兼出版人
I hope you’ll support our work with a recurring donation today. If you donate $10 or more a month, we’ll send you a brand new “Hands Off the Free Press!” sticker to recognise your commitment to our cause. Please, donate today. Onward, Katrina vanden Heuvel Editor and Publisher, The Nation