在2020年大选前，唐纳德·特朗普对着所有愿意听的人宣称，乔·拜登获胜将导致“一场你们从未见过的大萧条”。这位时任总统的断言显然荒谬，很快就被现实推翻。
Ahead of the 2020 elections, Donald Trump told anyone who would listen that a Joe Biden victory would lead to “a depression the likes of which you’ve never seen.”The then-president’s claim was obviously foolish and quickly discredited by reality.
然而，这位共和党人仍在重复这一说法，他在本周于密西西比州举行的竞选集会上宣称：“如果民主党获胜，你们将面临一场1929年式的经济大萧条。他们想做的事对我们国家极其不利，你们最终将陷入大衰退或大萧条。”这位现任总统从未说明这场经济灾难将如何发生，民主党议程的哪些部分如此危险，也未解释为何六年前他做出相同预测时会如此离谱地错误。
The Republican is nevertheless recycling the line declaring at a campaign rally in Mississippi this week, “If the Democrats win, you will have a 1929-style economic depression. What they want to do is so bad for our country, you’re going to end up with a massive recession or depression.”The incumbent president never got around to saying how this economic calamity would happen, which parts of the Democratic agenda are so dangerous or why he was so spectacularly wrong when he made the same prediction six years earlier.
但我注意到特别值得注意的是，即使是特朗普自己似乎也不相信他自己的恐吓言论。
But what struck me as especially notable was that even Trump doesn’t seem to believe his own fearmongering.
就在他在密西西比州举行活动前几小时，总统曾简短地与记者交谈，其中一位记者问他将如何“在民主党控制众议院或参议院的情况下与他们合作”。他回答说：“我们会想办法的。看，我有强有力的否决权。我希望那种情况不会发生，但如果发生了，以前许多总统都遇到过这种情况。你们拥有强有力的否决权，最终会达成协议。”
Just hours before his event in Mississippi, the president briefly spoke to reporters, one of whom asked how he’d “work with Democrats if they have control of the House or the Senate.”He replied We’ll figure a way. Look, I have strong veto. I hope that that won’t be the case, but if it is, that’s happened before with many presidents. And you have strong veto and you end up working out deals.
因此，一方面，特朗普希望美国人相信，国会山出现民主党多数将把国家变成一个人间地狱，在那里跨性别穆斯林移民会来到你家里把你的孩子变成共产主义者。
So on the one hand, Trump wants Americans to believe that a Democratic majority on Capitol Hill would transform the nation into a hellscape in which transgender Muslim immigrants come to your home to turn your children into communists.
但另一方面，特朗普也希望美国人相信，如果出现民主党多数，他将否决坏主意，同时致力于可能的两党协议——这不太可能让许多选民感到那么可怕。
But on the other hand, Trump also wants Americans to believe that if there a Democratic majority, he’ll veto bad ideas while working on possible bipartisan agreements — which is unlikely to sound all that scary to many voters.
总统在9月初曾发表过类似言论，他在接受福克斯新闻主持人劳拉·英格拉姆采访时表示：“我将阻挡他们所有糟糕的东西两年。情况不会一样，但我会是个阻挡者，我还能跟你说什么？”随后他补充说，他“很可能能够与可能出现的民主党多数派达成协议”。
The president made similar comments in early September, telling Fox News’ Laura Ingraham“I’ll block all their bad stuff for two years. It won’t be the same, but I’ll be a blocker, what can I tell you?”He then added that he’ll “probably be able to make deals” with the possible Democratic majority.
共和党的论调是，本次选举周期的利害关系实际上关乎生存——但特朗普的论调是，即便民主党获胜也没那么大不了。在选举周期的最后几天，现任总统向选民传递这种信息颇为罕见，但现实就是如此。
The Republican Party’s line is that the stakes in this election cycle are effectively existential — but Trump’s line is that it just won’t be that big a deal if Democrats prevail. That’s quite a message for the incumbent president to take to the electorate in the cycle’s closing days, but here we are.
特朗普淡化对民主党可能占多数的担忧，背离其竞选信息 MS NOW
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