特朗普总统正坚持不懈地支持那些在艰难中期选举季中面临挑战的共和党候选人。他依然是那个一如既往的竞选者，但他的支持者群体已经发生了变化。
President Trump is doggedly lending his support to Republican candidates facing a rough midterm season. He is the same campaigner he has always been, but his crowds have changed.
如果说特朗普总统早期的政治集会还像座无虚席的摇滚音乐会，那么最近的集会则开始呈现出告别巡演的首场演出之感。
If President Trump’s earlier political rallies felt like standing-room-only rock concerts, the latest ones are starting to feel like the first stops of a farewell tour.
这些活动已成了一种仪式。他会攻击民主党人。他的言论或许会有一瞬间（甚至持续很长时间）完全失去逻辑。（你知道的，这就是“编织”的魔力。）他会指控民主党人操纵了2020年的选举（事实并非如此）。他会抨击新闻媒体。然后，他会随着《乡村人民》乐队的一首歌跳起舞来。
The events are a ritual. He will attack Democrats. His words will probably stop making actual, logical sense for a moment, or for many moments. (It’s “the weave,” you see.) He will accuse Democrats of rigging the 2020 election (they didn’t). He will attack the news media. Then he will dance to a Village People song.
在共和党候选人处境艰难、正需要集中关注——以及资金——来培养一批潜在新领导人的时候，特朗普先生却仍在固守一种多年来对他行之有效的老策略：主要谈论自己。距离中期选举仅剩一个月，他再次发起动员，吹嘘自己的政绩，提供现金奖励，并呼吁支持者“假装”投票。
At a time when embattled Republican candidates could use concentrated attention — and money — to elevate a prospective new crop of leaders, Mr. Trump is clinging to an old strategy that has served him for years: talking mostly about himself. With a month until the midterms, he is again rallying, talking up his record, offering cash prizes and asking supporters to play pretend.
“我真的非常渴望赢得这场选举。我们想赢得中期选举，”特朗普先生周六晚上在俄亥俄州范达利亚市一所高中的学生中心对人群说道。“如果不介意的话，请假装我出现在选票上。”近十年来，我断断续续地报道过特朗普的集会，包括他在印第安纳州我曾经的中学那栋可容纳7300人的体育馆里举办的一场活动。我曾将这些集会视为三幕剧、程式化的庆典，也视为特朗普先生测试虚假信息、侮辱民主党对手或衡量他与美国一部分重要选民之间所建立纽带的试验场。
“I’m really in to win it. We want to win the midterms,” Mr. Trump told a crowd at a high school student center in Vandalia, Ohio, on Saturday evening. “If you don’t mind, please pretend that I’m on the ballot.”I have been covering Trump rallies, on and off, for almost a decade, including one held in the packed, 7,300-person-capacity gymnasium of my former middle school in Indiana. I have covered them as three-act plays, as formulaic festivals, and as laboratories for Mr. Trump to road-test misinformation, insult a Democratic opponent or gauge the bond he has forged with a potent slice of American voters.
特朗普先生在过去一周内前往俄克拉荷马州、阿拉巴马州和俄亥俄州参加集会，并在得克萨斯州短暂停留。在这次最新的竞选之旅中，有迹象表明他意识到自己还有追赶的余地：他在每场活动中都重申了中期选举前的一项承诺——如果共和党人继续掌控国会，他将向每位美国成年人发放5000美元。即便他的政党能够违背民意调查所显示的民主党可能取得重大胜利的趋势，这一承诺仍将面临严峻的财政挑战。
Mr. Trump was in Oklahoma, Alabama and Ohio this past week for rallies, with a brief stop in Texas. On this last road tour, there are hints that he understands he has ground to make up: He has featured at each event a midterm-convention promise that he will give every American adult $5,000 if Republicans keep control of Congress — a pledge that would face a steep fiscal hurdle even in the event that his party defies polls showing that big Democratic gains are likely.