随着上周接近尾声，举步维艰的消费者面临了另一个令人沮丧的事态发展：油价升至自4月以来未见的水平。距离中期选举所剩时间无几，且可负担性萦绕在众多美国人心头，常识表明这本应是唐纳德·特朗普在其最新竞选集会上会避而不谈的话题。然而，这位共和党总统显然忍不住了。
As last week neared its end, struggling consumers confronted yet another discouraging development: Oil prices reached levels unseen since April. With so little time remaining in the midterm election cycle, and with affordability on the minds of so many Americans, common sense suggested this would be a topic Donald Trump would avoid at his latest campaign rallies. And yet, the Republican president apparently couldn’t help himself.
周六晚在佐治亚州，特朗普首先向支持者保证，汽油价格“将大幅下跌”，只要他一想出办法结束他发动的对伊朗战争。如果他到此为止，这本不足为奇。但他接着说了下去。
Saturday night in Georgia, Trump began by assuring his supporters that gas prices “will be falling dramatically” just as soon as he figures out a way to end the war he launched in Iran. If he had stopped here, it would not have been notable. But then he kept going.
“美国石油天然气行业正在赚取数千亿美元，”总统说道，承认他不确定是否该提这事，并说自己团队的成员建议他：“先生，请别提这个。” 他置若罔闻。“我已经能看到那些假头条了：‘特朗普总统谈论他们赚了多少钱，而民众在加油站受苦。’ 那将是头条。但我说，‘我才不在乎。我就要说。我们赚了他妈的一大笔钱。’”
“The United States oil and gas business is making hundreds of billions of dollars,” the president said, conceding he wasn’t sure whether to bring this up, and that members of his own team advised him, “Please don’t mention that, sir.”He blew off the good advice. “I can just see the fake headlines: ‘President Trump is talking about all the money they’re making while people are suffering at the pump.’ That’ll be the headline. But I said, ‘I don’t give a damn. I’m gonna say it. We’re making a freaking fortune.’”
换言之，特朗普自己的团队告诉他，在选举日前不久别去歌颂高能源价格，因为美国人通常不愿听人说让他们为加油的痛苦感到高兴。他显然决定不听，因为他欣喜地看到大石油公司大发横财，不管这对不高兴的消费者有何影响。
In other words, Trump’s own team told him not to celebrate higher energy prices shortly before Election Day, since Americans generally don’t want to be told to be happy about their pain at the pump. He decided not to listen, evidently because he’s delighted to see Big Oil cash in, regardless of the impact on unhappy consumers.
总统在发动战争仅两周后首次抛出这一论点，他在社交媒体平台上辩称：“美国是世界上最大的石油生产国，遥遥领先，所以当油价上涨时，我们赚了大钱。”这一说法极不具说服力，很快便从白宫的论点中被撤下，却在两周前亚利桑那州的一次活动中意外卷土重来。“由于油价如此之高，我们国家赚的钱比以往任何时候都多，”特朗普夸口道，实际上是在告诉美国消费者，他们在加油站付出的更多钱是理所应当的。
The president first rolled out this talking point just two weeks after launching the war, using his social media platform to argue, “The United States is the largest Oil Producer in the World, by far, so when oil prices go up, we make a lot of money.”That line proved wildly unpersuasive and was quickly dropped from the White House’s talking points, before making an unexpected comeback at an event in Arizona two weeks ago. “Our country is making more money than it’s ever made because of the fact that oil is so high,” Trump boasted, effectively telling American consumers to be they’re paying more at the pump.
从实质上看，特朗普声称“我们发了一笔横财”的问题在于，这句话中的“我们”承担了过重的语义负荷。确实，美国正在大量生产石油，较高的油价也确实有助于产生石油行业的利润。但由于从石油行业利润中获益的美国人寥寥无几，几乎没人会为持续受损的钱包欢呼。
As a substantive matter, the problem with Trump’s claim that “we’re making a fortune” is that the word “we” is doing a lot of work in that sentence. It’s true that the United States is producing a lot of oil, and it’s also true that higher prices help generate oil industry profits. But since the number of Americans who benefit from oil industry profits is very small, few will likely celebrate the ongoing hit to their wallets.
但从政治角度看，这位共和党人——他不遗余力地让中期选举成为对自己的公投——在最糟糕的时机实施如此离奇的策略，实在令人咋舌。
But as a political matter, it’s remarkable to see the Republican — who has gone out of his way to make the midterms a referendum on himself — execute such a bizarre strategy at the worst possible time.
“我就能看到那些假标题：‘特朗普总统谈论他们赚了多少钱，而民众在加油站受苦，’”他说。麻烦在于，这种标题毫不“假”：特朗普谈论大石油公司赚了多少钱，而民众在加油站受苦，随后他随即补充道：“我才不在乎呢。”如果共和党走运，选民不会听说这件事。
“I can just see the fake headlines: ‘President Trump is talking about all the money they’re making while people are suffering at the pump,’” he said. The trouble is, there’s nothing “fake” about such headlines: Trump talk about all the money Big Oil is making while people are suffering at the pump, which he then promptly followed with, “I don’t give a damn.”If Republicans are very lucky, voters won’t hear about this.