美国政府正在花费数百万纳税人的钱，在中期选举临近之际向选民传播明显带有党派偏见的宣传内容。虽然这些电视广告并未被明确列为竞选广告，但实际上它们的作用与竞选广告并无二致。这些广告将唐纳德·特朗普描绘成英雄人物，试图吓唬民众，让他们相信美国可能会变成一个共产主义国家；同时，这些广告还攻击了新闻媒体以及那些被模糊描述的“政治敌人”。
The US government is spending millions of taxpayer dollars to get a blatantly partisan message in front of voters as the midterm elections loom. And while these TV ads aren’t explicitly campaign ads, they might as well be. They feature Donald Trump as a hero. They try to scare people into thinking that the US could become a communist country. They take shots at the news media and at vaguely described political enemies.
两位民主党参议员——帕蒂·默里（Patty Murray）和克里斯·墨菲（Chris Murphy）——周二恰当地将这些广告称为“对纳税人资金的惊人滥用”。专家指出，这些广告的资金来源可能是通过美国国土安全部提供的，这种行为可能是非法的，而且显然违背了道德规范。这些广告完全缺乏白宫所宣称的“公共服务”精神。
Two Democratic senators, Patty Murray and Chris Murphy, on Tuesday aptly called them “a shockingly corrupt use of taxpayer dollars”. Their funding, through the Department of Homeland Security, may be illegal, according to experts, and is certainly unethical. They lack any hint of the public service message that the White House claims.
事实上，这些广告完全符合政府会计机构所定义的“宣传”特征，包括“自我夸大”或“夸夸其谈”的内容。然而，那些本应对此采取行动的机构（包括所谓的独立机构——联邦通信委员会，FCC）却热衷于执行总统的命令。FCC主席布伦丹·卡尔（Brendan Carr）是一个狂热的特朗普支持者，他对特朗普的每一个项目都持支持态度；面对有关这些广告的质疑，卡尔只是耸耸肩表示：“这些广告很普通，并不值得我们调查。”
In fact, they closely fit the defining characteristics of propaganda, as described by the government accounting office, including “self-aggrandizement” or “puffery”. But the agencies or institutions that could do something about them, including the supposedly independent FCC, are eager to do the president’s bidding. Brendan Carr, the FCC chair, is a proud Trump toady, with his thumb on the scale for every Trump project. Carr has shrugged off questions about the ads. They don’t raise any red flags for him; they are quite normal, and nothing that his agency intends to investigate.
由于国会两院都由共和党控制，这种对纳税人资金的滥用行为很可能不会受到任何惩罚——至少目前是这样。
And with both houses of Congress held by Republican majorities, this startling use of taxpayer money will probably go unpunished – at least for now.
“对这种行为最直接的制约力量应该是国会，”华盛顿“公民责任与道德组织”（Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics, Crew）的负责人唐纳德·谢尔曼（Donald Sherman）说道。然而，正如他向CNN表示的那样，国会“尚未行使作为掌握财政大权的政府部门的权力来追究总统的责任”。虽然一些共和党议员对这些广告提出了质疑，但截至目前，还没有出现任何跨党派的强烈反对声浪。
“The most immediate check on this kind of behavior is supposed to be and needs to be Congress,” said Donald Sherman, who heads Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics (Crew) in Washington. However, as he told CNN, Congress “has not asserted itself as the first branch of government with the power of the purse to hold the president accountable”. Some Republican members of Congress have questioned the ads, but there’s no groundswell of bipartisan outrage so far.
特朗普政府以其一贯的挑衅姿态回应批评，甚至计划在未来几周内加倍投入。“这只是开始，”一位政府官员告诉 Axios。
The Trump administration is responding to the criticism with its usual defiance, even planning to double down in the next few weeks. “This is just the beginning,” one administration official told Axios.
“这些不是政治广告”的说法，被一个不容辩驳的现实所推翻：其中一则广告纯粹是 2024 年总统大选前一则特朗普竞选广告的翻版。不过它有所不同，加上了一个奥威尔式的尾声：“由美国政府出资播出”。
The argument that these are not political ads is contradicted by an undeniable reality: one of them is a straight-up rerun of a Trump campaign commercial from before the 2024 presidential election. It differs, though, with the addition of an Orwellian coda, “paid for by the US government”.
这则广告基调诡异而威吓，展示了特朗普行走的黑白画面，他在画面中承诺要“摒弃那个仇恨我们国家的病态政治阶层”，并誓言要“铲除假新闻媒体”。
With its weirdly menacing tone, it shows black-and-white images of Trump walking as he promises to “throw off the sick political class that hates our country” and pledges to “rout out the fake news media”.
另一则广告展示特朗普出席公开活动的画面，配以旁白坚称“美国永远不会成为一个共产主义国家”，背景音乐播放着歌曲《Love Me》。（这首 R&B 歌曲的创作者 JMSN 表示，他未授权使用其歌曲，并已发出停止侵权函。）《卫报》记者罗伯特·泰特报道，还有一则广告展示拉什莫尔山雕像群的画面，特朗普在其中夸耀道：“美利坚合众国是人类历史上最成功、成就最高、最卓越的国家。”
Another ad shows images of Trump at public events with a voiceover insisting that “America will never be a communist country,” while the song Love Me plays in the background. (The R&B artist JMSN has said he didn’t authorize this use of his song and has made a cease-and-desist demand.) Another ad, reported Robert Tait of the Guardian, shows images of Mount Rushmore and has Trump bragging: “The United States of America is the most successful, most accomplished, most exceptional nation ever to exist in human history.”
白房子将那则“爱我”广告描述为“具有教育意义且毫不掩饰爱国情怀”。并在一份声明中将这些广告定性为“公益广告”。
The White House described that “love me” ad as “educational and unapologetically patriotic”. And, in a statement, it termed the various ads as “public service announcements”.
它们迎合的是一个大帐篷式的受众群体，特朗普显然认为（或希望）这群人是可以被说服的。这些广告从职业橄榄球比赛到《周六夜现场》节目间隙，无处不在。
They are playing to a big-tent crowd that Trump apparently thinks (or hopes) is persuadable. They’ve aired everywhere from pro-football games to Saturday Night Live.
《华尔街日报》报道，截至上周末，这些广告已在福克斯、新闻最大、MSNBC 和哥伦比亚广播公司等不同立场的各大电视网播出 90 余次。
The Wall Street Journal reported that the ads, by last weekend, had aired more than 90 times across various networks – and political leanings – including Fox, Newsmax, MS Now and CBS.
尽管这些广告看起来极其腐败，但它们确实符合一种扭曲的特朗普式逻辑。
As corrupt as they appear to be, the ads do make a twisted kind of Trumpian sense.
它们极有可能是非法的，并招致了大量合理的批评。但缺失的，是真正有威慑力的问责机制。像往常一样，他又一次逃脱了应有的惩罚。
They are probably illegal and have garnered plenty of legitimate criticism. But what’s missing is accountability with actual teeth. As usual, he’s getting away with it.
但中期选举可能会改变这一局面：由于特朗普的支持率持续低迷，选民对他在伊朗问题上的错误决策以及不断飙升的战争开支感到不满，民主党有可能在国会的一个或两个议院中获得多数席位。这或许意味着特朗普那些无休止的违法行为将受到一定的制约。难怪他会竭尽全力阻止这种“噩梦”的发生……玛格丽特·沙利文（Margaret Sullivan）是《卫报》美国版的专栏作家，专门撰写关于媒体、政治和文化的文章。
But the midterm elections could change that. With Trump’s approval ratings low and voters unhappy with misguided Iran war and soaring costs, Democrats could seize a majority in one or both houses of Congress. That might mean some restraints on Trump’s never-ending cascade of malfeasance. It’s no wonder he’s pulling out all the stops to make that nightmare go away. Margaret Sullivan is a Guardian US columnist writing on media, politics and culture