随着中期选举的临近，唐纳德·特朗普总统奇怪地不愿意花费他政治战争基金中积累的大量资金。但《时代》杂志的一份新报道提出了这样一种可能性：他选择节省一大笔钱，在任期的最后几年花在自我推销和他心爱的项目上。
President Donald Trump has been oddly reluctant to spend the vast amount of money accumulated in his political war chest as the midterm elections approach. But a new report from Time magazine raises the possibility that he’s choosing to save a chunk of the money to spend on self-promotion and his pet projects in his final years in office.
特朗普最近才开始通过他的超级政治行动委员会MAGA Inc.花费他今年夏天积累的4亿多美元。PAC八月份的收入超过了支出。据报道，直到9月中旬，该公司才通过附属超级政治行动委员会预订了约1.4亿美元的广告，以帮助共和党候选人。显然，这一数字是在共和党政客恳求他的帮助并想知道他为什么不在一场可能是民主党人浪潮选举的竞选之前支出之后才出现的。
Trump has only recently started spending the over $400 million he accumulated over the summer through his super PAC, MAGA Inc. The PAC took in more than it spent in August. And only in mid-September did it reportedly book about $140 million in ads through affiliated super PACs to help GOP candidates. That amount notably only came after Republican politicians pleaded for his help and wondered why he wasn’t spending ahead of a race that could be a wave election for Democrats.
距离中期选举只剩下一个月了，MAGA Inc.的一些人可能会钱根本不会花。《时代周刊》的报道有助于阐明原因：助手们说，他一直不愿花钱，因为他想为未来的选举保留现金，作为保持对政党控制的手段。“当他不再能够筹集到他现在所能筹集的资金时，他希望自己的账户中有尽可能多的钱，”特朗普的一位助手今年秋天告诉《时代》。
With just a month left before the midterms, there is a possibility that some of the MAGA Inc. money won’t be spent at all. Time’s reporting helps illuminate why: Aides say he has been reluctant to spend because he wants to preserve cash for future elections as a means of keeping his grip on his party. “He wants to have as much money in his account as possible when he’s no longer able to raise the kind of money he can now,” a Trump aide told Time this fall.
“他似乎并不太关心中期选举，认为它们无论如何都是失败的，并希望保留未来的可能性。”这是一个惊人的说法。如果这是真的，这是特朗普时代又一个经典的“令人震惊但并不意外”的时刻。
“He doesn’t seem to care that much about the midterms, thinks they’re a lost cause anyway, and wants to preserve future possibilities.”That’s a striking claim. If it’s true, it’s another classic “shocking but not surprising” moment of the Trump era.
尽他所能将民主党推翻众议院和参议院的可能性降到最低，符合特朗普的利益。如果共和党要保持对国会的控制，他将能够继续更轻松地通过重大法案、任命法官并保护白宫免受调查和弹劾。尽管民意调查对共和党人来说看起来很严峻，但这并不一定是“失败的事业”;民意调查并不总是正确的，参议院地图对民主党来说很艰难，而民主党的胜利仍然可以帮助维护他的权力。
It’s in Trump’s interest to try to do what he can to minimize the odds that Democrats flip the House and the Senate. If the GOP were to maintain control of Congress, it would allow him to continue to more easily pass major bills, appoint judges and shield the White House from investigations and impeachment efforts. Even though the polls are looking grim for Republicans, this isn’t necessarily a “lost cause”; the polls aren’t always right, the Senate map is tough for Democrats and just Democratic gains can still help preserve his power.
民主党在众议院的微弱多数席位和共和党控制的参议院可能会让特朗普仍然能够在新国会中推动他的一些优先事项。如果特朗普关心在未来两年内完成任何有意义的事情，中期选举应该是优先事项。
An extremely narrow Democratic majority in the House and a Republican-held Senate could allow Trump to still push some of his priorities through the new Congress. If Trump cares about getting anything meaningful done in the next two years, the midterms should be a priority.
那么问题是特朗普想存这笔钱做什么？这笔钱会被用来支持竞选第三个任期的不切实际的尝试吗？难道他就可以花钱做广告宣传自己的成就，拼命地给人留下良好的最终印象吗？无论是在初选还是大选中，是否会尝试在信息传递上花钱，以提振他青睐的继任者？我们无法知道。
So then the question is what Trump would want to save this money for? Would it be spent in support of a quixotic attempt to run for a third term in office? Would it be so he can spend money on ads promoting his own accomplishments in a desperate bid to leave a good final impression? Would it be to try to spend money on messaging, whether in primaries or a general election, to boost his preferred successor? We have no way of knowing.
但我们确实知道，正如我的同事海耶斯·布朗最近在一篇关于特朗普思考他是否更擅长房地产而不是政治的文章中所说，我们的总统专注于“对不重要的细节进行微观管理，并痴迷于将自己推销为一个品牌”，而不是政策。也许特朗普只是将其视为政治保险--拨出资金，以防万一他需要巩固自己的遗产。
But what we do know, as my colleague Hayes Brown recently put it in a piece on Trump musing over whether he’s better at real estate than politics, is that our president fixates on “micromanaging over unimportant details and an obsession with selling himself as a brand” instead of policy. Perhaps Trump is simply thinking of it as political insurance — money set aside just in case he needs to shore up his legacy.
这可以部分解释为什么特朗普正在积极推行公然的腐败计划来积累金钱，例如为他的模因币的最大持有者举办另一场独家晚宴。特朗普系统性地利用总统职位来充实自己，这本身似乎就是一个目标。然而，他可能也意识到他的社会货币是短暂的，而且，正如他的助手向《时代》杂志指出的那样，他知道他拥有独特的能力，可以根据他的政治权力筹集资金，而政治权力目前基本上已经达到顶峰。
And this could explain in part why Trump is aggressively pursuing flagrantly corrupt schemes to accumulate money, such as another exclusive dinner for the largest holders of his meme coin. Trump has systematically used the presidency to enrich himself, and that seems to be a goal unto itself. Yet he may also be cognizant of how his social currency is ephemeral, and, as his aide noted to Time, knows that he has a unique ability to raise money based off his political power that’s basically peaking right now.
可以肯定的是，特朗普有可能花光了他的战争基金中的所有钱。但他明显的犹豫跟踪一个总统谁不认为自己是一个党的一部分，而是把这个党作为一个工具，以确保自己的权力。从这个角度来看，共和党11月的潜在惨败与其说是他自己的问题，不如说是所有其他宣誓效忠他的共和党人的问题。交易型的特朗普可能认为，在未来几年保留一些资金是在他离任后保持忠诚的最佳方式。
To be sure, it is possible that Trump spends all the money in his war chest. But his apparent hesitation tracks for a president who doesn’t view himself as part of a party, but rather sees that party as a vehicle for securing his own power. From that point of view, a potential November shellacking for the GOP is less a problem for himself than a problem for all the other Republicans who’ve sworn loyalty to him. And the transactional Trump likely believes that holding back some money for future years is the best way to keep that loyalty after he’s left office.