密歇根州马凯特——阿卜杜勒·埃尔-赛义德（Abdul El-Sayed）喜欢说，总统唐纳德·特朗普和副总统万斯“似乎总是对我的名字津津乐道”。这位密歇根州的民主党参议员候选人也十分乐意以牙还牙。
MARQUETTE, Mich. — Abdul El-Sayed likes to say that President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance “can’t seem to keep my name out of their mouth.”And the Democratic Senate nominee in Michigan is more than happy to return the favor.
上周，埃尔-赛义德携手纽约州民主党众议员亚历山大·奥卡西奥-科特斯（Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez），乘坐“事情本不该如此艰难”（It shouldn’t be this hard）竞选大巴驶过密歇根州上半岛（Upper Peninsula），将他的进步派理念带到了传统上属于保守派的阵地。在全部三个经停站，他都极力嘲讽总统和副总统。毫不留情。
Rolling through the Upper Peninsula last week on his “It shouldn’t be this hard” bus tour alongside Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., El-Sayed carried his progressive message into traditionally conservative territory. At all three stops, he leaned into taunting the president and vice president. Hard.
在埃斯卡纳巴（Escanaba），埃尔-赛义德称特朗普是“我们政治之病的最糟糕症状”。在艾恩芒廷（Iron Mountain），他称这位总统是“一个小飞贼”和一个“一生从未关心过普通人的好老爷子亿万富翁”。当他问及人群特朗普还是什么时，人们大喊回应：“一个恋童癖。”埃尔-赛义德回应道：“我本想说他的手很小。”
In Escanaba, El-Sayed called Trump “the worst symptom of the disease of our politics.”In Iron Mountain, he called the president “a punk” and “a good old billionaire who has never cared about people in his life.”When he asked the crowd what else Trump is, they yelled back: “A pedophile.”“I was just gonna say he has very small hands,” El-Sayed responded.
埃尔-赛义德把一些最尖锐的挖苦留给了万斯。万斯是俄亥俄州人，当天早些时候曾与共和党参议员候选人、前众议员迈克·罗杰斯（Mike Rogers）一同在门罗（Monroe）开展竞选活动。在那场集会上，万斯称埃尔-赛义德是“一个小黄鼠狼”。几个小时内，埃尔-赛义德便在马凯特自己的舞台上进行了回击。
El-Sayed saved some of his sharpest jabs for Vance, an Ohio native, who had campaigned earlier that day in Monroe with former Rep. Mike Rogers, the Republican Senate nominee. At that rally, Vance called El-Sayed “a little weasel.”Within hours, El-Sayed fired back from his own stage in Marquette. “You know it’s funny, he called me a — JD Vance called me a ‘little weasel’ today,” he remarked on stage.
他在台上说道：“你知道这很有趣，他今天叫我——万斯今天叫我‘一个小黄鼠狼’。我当时想‘不，不，不。你说的其实是一只他妈的狼獾。’”他嘲笑万斯与“五个喜欢他的人”举办了一场“可爱的小型集会”，并借用了俄亥俄州立大学与密歇根大学之间传奇的宿敌关系。
“I’m like ‘No, no, no. What you’re talking about is a fucking wolverine.’”He mocked Vance for holding a “cute little rally” with the “five people who like him” — and reached for the storied rivalry between Ohio State and the University of Michigan.
埃尔-赛义德说：“想象一下，作为一个来自密歇根州的候选人，你却不得不邀请一个来自俄亥俄州的人来为你助选。”他还说：“我当时就想，俄亥俄州？真是江郎才尽了，兄弟。”
“Imagine being the candidate from Michigan and having to invite somebody from Ohio to campaign for you,” El-Sayed said. “I was like, Ohio? Bottom of the barrel, bro.”
可以肯定的是，这种嘲讽并非毫无挑衅。特朗普对埃尔-赛义德表现出了特别的关注，如果埃尔-赛义德当选，他将成为首位当选参议员穆斯林。这位总统曾直呼其中间名“穆罕默德”（Mohamed），将其称为“圣战狂人”，并于本月早些时候在椭圆形办公室发布了一段视频，称他是“糟糕的消息”。特朗普说：“我们不能冒风险让这家伙进入美国参议院。”
The trolling, to be sure, is not unprompted. Trump has taken a particular interest in El-Sayed, who would be the first Muslim elected to the Senate. The president has referred to him by his middle name, Mohamed, labeled him “a Jihadist lunatic” and, earlier this month, released a video from the Oval Office calling him “bad news.”“We cannot take a chance of having this guy be in the United States Senate,” Trump said.
但这一切定于周三晚上迎来白热化，届时埃尔-赛义德和罗杰斯将在密歇根州备受瞩目的参议院竞选中进行第二场也是最后一场辩论。在他们的首次同台交锋中，双方火药味十足。他们的第二轮交锋势必会展现更多火花。
But it is set to come to a head Wednesday night, when El-Sayed and Rogers meet for the second, and final, debate in Michigan’s marquee Senate race. In their first meeting on stage, sparks flew. Their second go-around is certain to showcase more.
不断升级的言辞反映了这场竞选的高风险。密歇根州的参议院竞选被评为胜负难料，获胜者可能有助于决定哪个党派在特朗普总统任期的最后两年中控制参议院。埃尔-赛义德和罗杰斯即将举行他们的最后一场辩论。在特朗普计划于10月25日在密歇根州举行集会之前，互相辱骂的现象正在加剧——而罗杰斯本人对于是否拥抱这次访问明显表现出勉强态度。
The escalating rhetoric reflects the stakes. Michigan’s Senate race is rated a toss-up, and the winner could help determine which party controls the chamber for the final two years of Trump’s presidency. El-Sayed and Rogers are set to meet for their final debate. And the name-calling is only intensifying ahead of Trump’s planned Oct. 25 rally in Michigan — a visit Rogers himself has been noticeably reluctant to embrace.
10月8日在大急流城举行的候选人首次辩论结束后，MS NOW询问道罗杰斯是否希望特朗普来到密歇根州时，罗杰斯未予表态。
Asked by MS NOW after the candidates’ first debate on Oct. 8 in Grand Rapids whether he wanted Trump to come to Michigan, Rogers was noncommittal.
在赞扬了特朗普的小费免税政策并吹捧关税对该州的樱桃种植者和汽车制造商产生积极影响后，罗杰斯说：“是的，他受到欢迎——我很乐意让他跟那些民众交流并调动他们的积极性。”
“Yes, he’d be welcome — I’d love to have him talk to those people and get them fired up,” Rogers said, after commending Trump’s no-tax-on-tips policy and touting the positive effects the tariffs have had on cherry farmers and automakers in the state.
当被追问他是否会与特朗普同台亮相时，罗杰斯没有回答便走开了。今年7月，他曾在一场集会上与这位总统同台。
Pressed on whether he would appear alongside Trump, Rogers moved on without answering. He shared a stage with the president at a rally in July.
罗杰斯的谨慎反映出密歇根州的分裂程度有多深。特朗普在2024年以1.4个百分点的优势赢得了该州。同一年，罗杰斯在参议员竞选中以大约三分之一的百分点输给了民主党人埃莉萨·斯洛特金。
Rogers’ caution reflects how closely divided Michigan is. Trump carried the state by 1.4 percentage points in 2024. That same year, Rogers lost his Senate bid to Democrat Elissa Slotkin by about a third of a percentage point.
而且总统在那里的支持率已经下滑。马里斯特（Marist）9月的一项民调发现，41%的密歇根州选民对特朗普的表现表示认可，而57%的人表示不认可。
And the president’s standing there has slipped. A Marist poll in September found that 41% of Michigan voters approve of the job Trump is doing, while 57% disapprove.
埃尔-赛义德正试图利用特朗普糟糕的支持率和罗杰斯的矛盾态度来谋取政治利益。在埃斯卡纳巴，他叫阵总统来到密歇根州，并将这场选举描绘成对特朗普议程的全民公决——这是以其人之道还治其人之身。粗话满天飞。又是这样。
El-Sayed is trying to capitalize on both Trump’s poor numbers and Rogers’ ambivalence. In Escanaba, he dared the president to come to Michigan and cast the election as a referendum on Trump’s agenda — turning one of the president’s own lines against him. Expletives flew. Again.
“唐纳德正考虑来密歇根，”他说，引来人群的一片嘘声。“但没关系，其实，你知道吗？唐纳德要来提醒大家，唐纳德在选票上。”
“Donald is thinking about coming to Michigan,” he said, drawing boos from the crowd. “But it’s OK, actually, you know what? Donald is going to come and remind everybody that Donald is on the ballot.”
“唐纳德，来吧，”他继续说道。“告诉密歇根的每个人，你在选票上。你那狗屁关税战在选票上。你那愚蠢的对伊朗战争在选票上。你的医疗补助削减在选票上。你的舞厅在选票上。所以来向大家讲述这一切吧。如果你不来，我来讲。”
“Donald, come,” he continued. “Tell everybody in Michigan that you are on the ballot. Your shit tariff war is on the ballot. Your dumbass war with Iran is on the ballot. Your Medicaid cuts are on the ballot. Your ballroom’s on the ballot. So come tell everybody about it. And if you won’t, I will.”
这种针锋相对也是一个窗口，让人得以一窥特朗普时代政治的现状。自特朗普2015年闯入国家政治舞台以来，他那种傲慢、以辱骂开道的风格已经更广泛地渗入政坛。埃尔-赛义德是一名大学运动员出身的政治人物，他精通社交媒体，几乎随时准备回答记者的提问，乐于接受福克斯新闻采访中的唇枪舌剑，并且在受到批评时很少退缩——在许多方面，他正是这种转变的产物。特朗普喜欢与对手过招。埃尔-赛义德正在擂台上迎战他。
The back-and-forth is also a window into what politics has become in the Trump era. Since Trump burst onto the national political scene in 2015, his brash, insult-first style has seeped into politics more broadly. El-Sayed — a former college athlete who is fluent in social media, takes questions from reporters at nearly every turn, relishes the back-and-forth of a Fox News interview and rarely backs off a position under criticism — is in many ways a product of that shift. Trump likes to spar with his opponents. El-Sayed is meeting him in the ring.
在接受MS NOW采访时，当被问及他对特朗普的讥讽时，埃尔-赛义德在谈到铁山镇（Iron Mountain）人群的反应时微微一笑。
Asked about his jabs at Trump in an interview with MS NOW, El-Sayed smiled slightly as he addressed the crowd’s answer in Iron Mountain.
“说到特朗普，你看，我没有说他的任何癖好，那是人群说的，”他说。
“When it comes to Trump, like, I didn’t say anything about his proclivities, that was the crowd,” he said.
“他们知道，”他补充道。“他们理解。”埃尔-赛义德还展现出一种将特朗普的侮辱扭转的诀窍——在某些情况下，甚至是以其人之道还治其人之身。
“They know,” he added. “They understand.”El-Sayed has also shown a knack for turning Trump’s insults around — and, in some cases, back on the president.
在铁山镇的市民大会上，他说特朗普过去常常念错他的名“阿卜杜勒”（Abdul）。在埃尔-赛义德公开指出这一点后，这位总统改叫他的中间名。
At the Iron Mountain town hall, he said Trump used to mispronounce his first name, Abdul. After El-Sayed called him out for it, the president switched to his middle name.
“现在我指出来之后，他喜欢叫我的中间名，也就是穆罕默德（Mohamed）。有趣的是，阿卜杜勒的意思是仆人。阿卜杜勒·埃尔-赛义德的意思是仆人式领袖，”埃尔-赛义德说。“穆罕默德的意思是受赞颂者。所以他把我从仆人变成了受赞颂者。”人群爆发出一阵笑声和欢呼声。
“Now that I called it out, he likes to call me by my middle name, which is Mohamed. And the funny thing about it is, Abdul means servant. Abdul El-Sayed means servant leader,” El-Sayed said. “Mohamed means the praised one. So he took me from servant to praised one.”The crowd erupted in laughter and cheers.
“不管你们想怎么叫我，”他接着说，“到了11月，我一定会让你们在它前面加上‘参议员’这个词。”
“Whatever you want to call me,” he continued, “I’m going to make sure you’re going to have to use the word senator in front of it in November.”