文 / 海伦·刘易斯“当总统还是有点好处的，” 唐纳德·特朗普 本月早些时候在佐治亚州的一次集会上若有所思地说。大胆猜猜这些好处可能是什么。酷炫的装甲车？掌管核按钮？巨大的腐败机会？全错。自由世界的领袖指的竟然是住在由 “高大、强壮、英俊的士兵” 守卫的房子里的乐趣。在乔·拜登治下，士兵不准长得帅，因为 “觉醒” 文化。更糟糕的是，其中一些竟然还是女兵。
By Helen Lewis“There are some reasons to be president,” Donald Trump mused at a rally in Georgia earlier this month. Take a wild guess what these might be. The cool armored car? Custody of the nuclear button? The opportunities for immense corruption? Wrong. The leader of the free world was referring to the joy of living in a house guarded by “big, strong, handsome soldiers.”Under Joe Biden, soldiers were not allowed to be hot, because of woke. Even worse, some of them were girls.
是的，在经历了两年艰苦的执政后，特朗普重回他的舒适区，再次踏上竞选之旅，说出脑海中闪现的各种支离破碎的想法。他最近最喜欢的修辞主题出人意料：官方总统 “梦中情人” 排名。在多场集会上，他滔滔不绝地谈论男性政客、士兵甚至抗议者的相对帅气程度。结果，网友们给他诊断出一种新病症：“同性恋痴呆”。在异性恋矿井里辛苦挖掘多年后，这位前选美比赛主办方是否变得如此失去抑制，以至于再也压抑不住对男性肉体的渴望？
Yes, after two grinding years of governance, Trump is back in his happy place, out on the campaign trail, voicing whichever disconnected thoughts crackle and fizz through his frontal cortex. His favorite rhetorical theme lately is an unexpected one: the official presidential dreamboat rankings. In multiple rallies, Trump has gone on and on about the relative hotness of male politicians, soldiers, and even protesters. As a result, people on the internet have diagnosed him with a novel medical condition: gay dementia. After putting in a solid shift in the heterosexuality mines, has the former beauty-pageant proprietor now become so disinhibited that he can no longer repress his thirst for man-flesh?
一个不那么耸人听闻的解释可能是：这位总统一直根据听众反馈打磨演讲，他发现自己的“帅哥素材”总能博得满堂彩。2024年，他反复提及“已故伟大的汉尼拔·莱克特”，并探讨被电死还是被鲨鱼吃掉哪个更好，仅仅是因为观众爱听这些段子。如今，MAGA铁杆支持者从一位由基督教保守派选上台的男人口中听到带有同性恋情欲色彩的男性美学描述，获得了一种越轨的快感。
A less salacious explanation might be that the president has always refined his speeches based on audience feedback, and he’s discovered that his hot-guy material absolutely kills. In 2024, he kept going on about “the late, great Hannibal Lecter” and whether being electrocuted is preferable to being eaten by a shark, simply because the crowds enjoyed those riffs. Today the MAGA faithful get a transgressive thrill from hearing a man put into office by Christian conservatives deliver homoerotic stylings on male beauty.
称赞女性性感会显得猥琐，并可能让观众联想到针对特朗普的性侵指控，或是那句“抓住她们的阴部”这种更衣室里的粗俗话。但垂涎男性则被视为健康、无害的乐趣，在突破离谱行为底线长达十年之后，这里有一个特朗普可以无害打破的禁忌。哪位民主党人会嘲笑一个男人有点“娘娘腔”？斯蒂芬·米勒绝不敢在老板耳边低语：“先生，您知道我们一直在阴阳怪气地暗示詹姆斯·塔拉里科暗地里是同性恋吗？您对壮汉士兵显而易见的喜爱传递出了——混淆的信号。”
Calling women hot would read as creepy, and might remind audiences of the sexual-assault allegations against Trump, or the locker-room gaucheness of “grab ’em by the pussy.”But lusting after men is good, clean fun, and after a decade pushing the limits of outrageous behavior, here is a taboo that Trump can harmlessly break. Which Democrat is going to mock a guy for being a little bit swishy? Stephen Miller will not dare whisper to his boss: Sir, you know that we keep snidely implying that James Talarico is secretly gay?
暂且不谈那些严肃的、摸着下巴的选举分析了。你想听听美国“最伟大的总统”心目中的“绝世帅哥”都有谁。请登场吧，俄亥俄州的乔恩·赫斯特德，带着你那光荣的、波涛汹涌的臀大肌，以及你对节能洗碗机发起的英勇十字军东征。在代顿为共和党参议员提名人助选的集会上，特朗普得知赫斯特德曾是明星橄榄球运动员。
Your obvious love of buff soldiers is giving—mixed messages. Enough of the serious chin-stroking electoral analysis, though. You want to hear which men America’s greatest president considers to be stone-cold babes. Step forward, Jon Husted of Ohio, with your glorious, rippling glutes and your valiant crusade against energy-efficient dishwashers.
顺理成章地，总统在赫斯特德的臀部——那灵魂之窗——寻找证据。正如他后来在扬斯顿对人群所说：“我不常对男人这么做。”（谎言。）“我开始审视他的身体，因为我不知道他是位伟大的运动员。我看了，上上下下地看。我看了他的屁股。”人群哄笑，这鼓励特朗普补充道，他还欣赏赫斯特德的手，说那手“像爪子一样”。
At a campaign stop for the Republican Senate nominee in Dayton, Trump discovered that Husted used to be a star football player. Naturally, the president looked for evidence of this in Husted’s buttocks—the windows to the soul. As he later told a crowd in Youngstown: “I don’t do this with men very often.” (A lie.) “I started examining his body because I didn’t know he was a great athlete. And I looked and I watched up and down. I looked at his ass.”The crowd laughed, which encouraged Trump to add that he also admired Husted’s hands, which he said were “like claws.”
几天后在肯塔基州，特朗普重提赫斯特德那“性感屁股”话题。“我审视了他的屁股，又看了他的肩膀。我看了他的脚。我看了他的手。我看了他的下颌线，”他对人群说。“然后我拍了拍他的肩膀，硬得像块钢。我到现在还在缓过劲来。”他说，自从他谈论那事儿以来，这位俄亥俄候选人的支持率“上涨了9到10个百分点”。
Days later in Kentucky, Trump returned to the theme of Husted’s badonkadonk. “I examined his ass, and then I looked at his shoulders. I looked at his feet. I looked at his hand. I looked at his jawline,” he told the crowd. “I then patted him on the shoulder, and it was like a piece of steel. I’m still recovering.”The Ohio candidate had gained “nine or 10 points since I talked about that,” he said. (Also a lie.)
（也是谎言。）特朗普向来对长相帅气的男士有弱点。据报道，他挑选内阁成员，如国防部长皮特·赫格塞斯，是看他们在电视上镜效果如何。他长期养成了一种习惯，在听众中挑出长相英俊的男性，邀请全场一起欣赏。（“上来，请上来。我想看看，”他在今年春天的海岸警卫队仪式上对一位肌肉发达的年轻男子说。）
Trump has always had a weakness for a photogenic guy. He reportedly chose members of his Cabinet, such as Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, after seeing how good they looked on television. He’s long made a habit of singling out attractive men in his audiences, entreating the rest of the crowd to join in his appreciation. (“Get up here, please. I want to see,” he told a muscled young man at a Coast Guard ceremony this spring.) Back in February, the president described a “very powerful” steel-factory owner who was so grateful for his policies that “he said, ‘Sir, I want to kiss you so badly.’”In May, my colleague Ashley Parker chronicled some of the men whose looks had Trump favorably assessed.
回溯到2月，总统描述一位“非常有权势”的钢铁厂主，因感激他的政策而说：“先生，我太想吻你了。”5月，我的同事阿什利·帕克梳理了一些曾获特朗普外貌青睐的男性。
These included the president of Paraguay (“young and handsome”), military pilots (“perfect specimens”), and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent (“under that beautiful exterior is a killer”). The president’s homoerotic stylings have become more obvious, however, because he has so little else to talk about on the campaign trail.
这些人包括巴拉圭总统（“年轻英俊”）、军用飞行员（“完美的典范”）以及财政部长斯科特·贝森特（“那美丽外表下藏着一位杀手”）。
Crooked Hillary and Sleepy Joe have long since departed the scene, Shifty Schiff’s impeachment plans went nowhere, and the fake-news media have been replaced by MAGA toadies.
总统的这种同性恋倾向越来越明显了——因为在竞选活动中他实在没什么其他可说的。那些曾经与他竞争的政敌（比如希拉里和乔·拜登）早已退出了政治舞台；希夫提出的弹劾计划也毫无结果；那些传播虚假新闻的媒体已经被那些盲目支持“MAGA”（让美国再次伟大）的媒体所取代。由于几乎没有真正的对手（除了他自己糟糕的判断力），特朗普一直在努力寻找新的话题来吸引选民的注意。
With few enemies left (except his own terrible judgment) Trump is struggling to develop new material. Like many older people, he has retreated to his comfort zone, and his comfort zone is guarded by big, strapping men in uniform. “They’re always great-looking, these four-star guys. I don’t know if they get the job by their look,” he told a rally in Kansas this week.
像许多老年人一样，他退回到了自己熟悉的环境中，而这个“舒适区”是由那些身材魁梧、穿着制服的男性们守护着的。他在堪萨斯州的一次集会上说：“那些四星上将看起来都非常英俊……我不知道他们是不是因为外表才获得这些职位的。”他还称赞摇滚歌手泰德·纳金特，说纳金特的儿子“长得非常帅”。
He also praised the rock singer Ted Nugent for having a son who was “a beautiful-looking guy.”The president has ruminated so often on male beauty lately that it’s become very obvious that he has a type. His taste in men turns out to be somewhat basic—white, beefy, butch; think corn-fed midwestern fireman—and thoroughly partisan.
最近，特朗普频繁谈论男性美貌，这清楚地表明他有自己的审美标准：他偏爱那些白人、身材健壮、具有阳刚魅力的男性（比如那些在中西部工作的消防员）。在同一场在乔治亚州举行的集会上，他夸赞白宫警卫的同时，错误地声称民主党参议员乔恩·奥索夫“长得并不帅”，而他的共和党对手则相反。特朗普还说：“我觉得迈克·柯林斯真的很帅，他完全是个真正的男人……不过我对奥索夫就不太确定了。”
At the same rally in Georgia where he enthused about the White House guards, Trump incorrectly declared that Senator Jon Ossoff, a Democrat, was not a “good-looking man,” unlike his Republican challenger. “I actually think Mike Collins is a good-looking man—and he’s all man. He’s all man,” added Trump. “I’m not sure about Ossoff.” (Let me save you a click: Collins is a mulleted 59-year-old with a touch of latter-day Newt Gingrich about his facial features, whereas Ossoff is so cute that he clearly had to shave off his beard in order to be taken seriously.)
（顺便说明一下：柯林斯是一位59岁的男性，留着莫西干发型；而奥索夫长得非常可爱，为了让人认真对待他的观点，他甚至不得不刮掉胡子。）特朗普还称共和党候选人里克·杰克逊“非常英俊、气质出众”。在堪萨斯州，他将这种“审美标准”扩展到了整个观众群体上；在描述一名支持者的行为时，他赞许地说：“那个支持‘MAGA’的人把抗议者打得屁滚尿流……不过这其实也没什么大不了的。”
Trump went on to declare that the GOP candidate for Georgia governor, Rick Jackson, was also a “very handsome, distinguished, beautiful-looking guy.”In Kansas, Trump expanded his hotness rankings to encompass the crowd. Describing one loyalist’s confrontation with a protester, he noted approvingly that “the MAGA guy beat the crap out of him. Not that that matters. Good-looking guy.”
“好看的家伙。”特朗普的“让美国再次伟大”滤镜也有失效的时候。上个月，他经历了一个嘲讽肯·帕克斯顿的阶段，在多场演讲中专门留出篇幅，大谈这位得克萨斯州共和党参议员候选人长相多么邋遢。“他可能不是我见过的长相最好看的家伙，”总统在9月9日如此评价，第二天又补刀道：“我不确定我是否喜欢你的长相。我不确定我是否喜欢你的穿衣风格。我不喜欢你说话的样子。”真遗憾！显然，帕克斯顿长了一张连一个带有恋男倾向的共和党总统都爱不起来的脸。
Trump’s MAGA goggles do have some limits. Last month, he went through a phase of roasting Ken Paxton, devoting sections of multiple speeches to what a schlub he found the Republican Senate candidate in Texas to be. “He may not be the best-looking guy I’ve ever seen,” the president observed on September 9, adding the next day: “I’m not sure if I like your look. I’m not sure if I like the way you dress. I don’t like the way you talk.”Sad! Paxton, apparently, has a face not even a homoerotically inclined Republican president can love.
对身穿制服（或不穿制服）的壮硕青年的热衷，向来是威权主义的标志之一——这种统治形式迷恋强壮的男性躯体，以及其中蕴含的暴力承诺，即便统治者视公开的同性恋为堕落行为。墨索里尼的意大利同时将数十名同性恋男性流放至圣多米诺岛，又在罗马的大理石体育场建造了令人瞠目结舌、极具阉人风格的裸体雕像。
An enthusiasm for buff young men in uniforms (or out of them) has always been one of the hallmarks of authoritarianism—a form of governance enamored of strong male bodies, and the promise of violence that they contain, even when the rulers consider overt homosexuality degenerate. Mussolini’s Italy simultaneously exiled dozens of gay men to the island of San Domino and produced the jaw-droppingly campy naked statues at the Stadio dei Marmi in Rome.
许多独裁者最终都陷入阉人风格的泥沼：卡扎菲拥有一支全女性贴身护卫队。土库曼斯坦的尼亚佐夫将四月以其母亲的名字命名，并建造了一座会旋转以面向太阳的自已金像。短命的中非帝国皇帝博卡萨一世试图让自己的加冕仪式成为拿破仑·波拿巴加冕仪式的精确复制品，却因不得不在一座篮球场举行而受阻。
Many dictators end up mired in camp: Muammar Qaddafi had an all-female bodyguard troop. Turkmenistan’s Saparmurat Niyazov renamed April after his mother and built a gold statue of himself that rotated to face the sun. Emperor Bokassa I of the short-lived Central African empire tried to make his coronation ceremony an exact replica of the one held by Napoleon Bonaparte, but was hampered by having to hold it in a basketball stadium.
唐纳德·特朗普对不受约束的行政权力和修长男性脚踝的同时钟爱，因此属于一种丰富的历史传统。与此同时，这也是他的政治风格背离典型美国保守主义的众多方式之一。从20世纪70年代起，共和党成了“道德大多数”和“传统价值观”的代名词。该党基本盘随意恐同这一观念，至今仍是约定俗成的常识，以至于J·D·万斯——一位千禧一代，在学生时代显而易见地有LGBTQ朋友——现在不得不扮演老派社会保守派，以展示其政治转变的深度。
Donald Trump’s simultaneous love for unchecked executive power and a well-turned male ankle is therefore part of a rich historical tradition. At the same time, it is also one of the many ways in which his political style represents a departure from typical American conservatism. From the 1970s onward, the Republicans were the party of the “moral majority” and “traditional values.”The idea that the party’s base is casually homophobic is still such conventional wisdom that J. D. Vance, a Millennial who very obviously had LGBTQ friends in his student years, now has to play-act as an old-school social conservative to show the depth of his political conversion.
当得克萨斯州一场集会上的一名男子高呼他爱万斯时，这位副总统回应道：“我也爱您，先生。以纯柏拉图式的方式，说清楚了。我是副总统，不是詹姆斯·塔拉里科。”万斯似乎没有意识到，他老板的阴柔滑稽感正是其政治吸引力的关键——这是将恶毒转化为娱乐圈式俏皮话的秘方。特朗普是政坛的琼·里弗斯，其人设受到美式虚假感的各种风味影响：马戏团招徕客、真人秀主持人、职业摔角那套“剧本表演”世界。他看起来像个男人在做变装表演扮演他自己。
When a man at a rally in Texas shouted out that he loved Vance, the vice president replied: “I love you too, sir. In a totally platonic way, to be clear. I’m the vice president, not James Talarico.”Vance does not seem to have grasped that his boss’s campiness is key to his political appeal—it’s the secret sauce that transforms nastiness into showbiz sass. Trump is politics’ answer to Joan Rivers, and his persona is influenced by all the flavors of American fakery: the carnival barker, the reality-TV host, the kayfabe world of professional wrestling. He looks like a man doing a drag performance as himself.
特朗普对阴柔滑稽感的接纳，也反映出他对羞耻免疫。我感觉万斯一想到那张著名的戴眼线、戴金发套的照片，就会尴尬得无地自容。他对同性恋、阴柔滑稽感和女性气质的不自在，读来像是不安全感。相比之下，特朗普热爱《日落大道》，且不在乎谁知道。见鬼，他甚至参加过丽莎·明内利的婚礼。这种真实与不设防，让他能让肯塔基州的一群白人基督徒听他的同性恋情结絮语——还鼓掌叫好。
Trump’s embrace of camp also reflects his immunity to shame. I get the sense that Vance is crippled with embarrassment by the thought of that famous picture of him in eyeliner and a blond wig. His unease with gayness, campiness, and femininity reads as insecurity. By contrast, Trump loves Sunset Boulevard and doesn’t care who knows it. Hell, he even went to Liza Minnelli’s wedding. That authenticity and disinhibition means he can get a crowd of white Christians in Kentucky to listen to his homoerotic ramblings—and applaud.