成年后的几十年里，我一直做两个反复出现的梦。第一个是我必须回大学完成学业、拿到文凭。（我离校时只差一个学期就能毕业，但最终在别处修了课、转了学分，还是拿到了那张毕业证书。）第二个梦是我上《每日秀》节目——最重要的是还能参加节目后的派对。对于大学梦背后那种未了心愿的焦虑，我无能为力。至于第二个梦，我说永远不嫌晚。而我离实现这个梦最近的一次，发生在本周早些时候，当时我作为嘉宾上了《每日秀》。
Our Land As an adult, I have had two recurring dreams for decades. The first is that I must return to college to complete my studies and earn a diploma. (I left school a semester shy of graduating but ended up taking courses elsewhere, transferring the credits, and snagging that sheepskin.) The second is that I appear on an episode of and—most important—attend the afterparty. There’s not much I can do to address the anxiety of unfinished business underlying the college dream. As for the second, I say it’s never too late. And the closest I’ve come to realizing that dream occurred earlier this week when I was a guest on .
乔恩·斯图尔特邀请我上节目，聊聊我的新书，以及关于特朗普、普京和乌克兰战争的最新消息。我从未有过这样一次既有趣又风趣的谈话，话题却关乎对美国民主和全球秩序的深刻威胁。斯图尔特是位大方的主持人，给了我充足的时间和机会回答他敏锐的提问，还一起分享欢笑。现场观众也很支持。
Jon Stewart invited me on to discuss my new book, and the latest news about Trump, Putin, and the war in Ukraine. I’ve never had such an entertaining and amusing chat about a profound threat to American democracy and global order. Stewart was a generous host, allowing me plenty of time and opportunity to respond to his smart questions and sharing the laughs. The crowd was supportive.
一度，斯图尔特抛出一个耐人寻味的问题。在我指出特朗普正在实现他对普京的“迷恋”之后，他问道：特朗普是否在奉行这样一种理论——如果世界被划分为分别由俄罗斯、中国和美国主导的势力范围，从稳定和繁荣的角度看，这对美国反而有利？我反驳说，斯图尔特给特朗普的评价太高了。他回应道：“凡事都有第一次。”观众哄堂大笑。
At one point, Stewart posed an intriguing query. After I noted that Trump was now consummating his “man crush” on Putin, he asked whether it was possible Trump was pursuing the theory that it would be good for the United States, in terms of stability and prosperity, if the world were divided into spheres of influence dominated, respectively, by Russia, China, and the United States. I countered that Stewart was giving Trump too much credit. He replied that there’s “a first time for everything.”
他补充说：“他在《学徒》节目里表现得很棒。”随后斯图尔特评论道，他认为《教父》里的一句台词解释了特朗普的世界观：“大事化小，小事化了。”（注：原文 “Big small” 疑为引用误记，此处按语境意译）这句话成了后续访谈的一个标签。您可在此观看视频：斯图尔特展现出对特朗普多年迷恋普京这一重大故事及其对我们其他人可能意味着什么的牢固掌握。
The audience laughed. He added, “He was very good on .”Stewart then remarked that he believes a line from explains Trump’s view of the world: “Big small.”That became a tagline for the rest of the interview. You can watch it here: Stewart displayed a firm grasp of the big story of Trump’s yearslong infatuation with Putin and what it might mean for the rest of us.
但即使特朗普最近全力拥抱普京、抛弃乌克兰总统泽连斯基已在过去两周成为头条新闻，大部分媒体报道仍缺乏正在发生之事的完整背景——即这是普京针对美国长达十年的影子战争的胜利（我在书中详述了这一点）。
But even as Trump’s recent full-throttle embrace of Putin and his abandonment of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy have become headline news these past two weeks, much media coverage still lacks the full context of what’s occurring—that this is the triumph of Putin’s decadelong shadow war against the United States (which I detail in the book).
录制前几小时，我上了妮可·华莱士的 MS Now 节目，讨论特朗普向普京投降的问题，她问我：“你认为为什么人们无法理清”普京对美国的全面攻势以及特朗普的共谋这一完整故事？我回答：“俄罗斯干预我们民主这一事实——他在 2016 年、2020 年、2024 年都这么做了，而且现在正在这么做……可能是一个过于残酷的真相，让人们难以接受。”
A few hours before taping, I appeared on Nicolle Wallace’s MS Now show to discuss Trump’s capitulation to Putin, and she asked me, “Why do you think people can’t get their brain” around the complete tale of Putin’s assault on the United States and Trump’s complicity? I answered: “The fact of Russia intervening in our democracy—which [Putin] did in 2016, 2020, 2024, and he’s doing right now…may be too tough a truth for people to get ahold of.”I explained that Trump has succeeded in the messaging war:
我解释说，特朗普在信息战中取得了成功：在随后的日子里，我意识到，尽管特朗普最近对普京的迁就——柴油交易、他对俄罗斯在乌克兰行动的荒谬辩护、他对泽连斯基和乌克兰的震惊性谴责和抛弃——引起了大量媒体关注，但特朗普与俄罗斯的整体故事仍未被传达。正如华莱士可能会说的，大脑仍未理清这一脉络。
In the following days, I realized that even though Trump’s recent accommodation to Putin—the diesel deal, his absurd defense of Russia’s actions in Ukraine, his shocking denunciation and abandonment of Zelenskyy and Ukraine—was drawing much media notice, the overall story of Trump and Russia was still not being conveyed. As Wallace might say, brains still were not wrapping around it.
两个突出的例子是两位资深记者对近期事态发展的深度分析。白宫和国家安全记者大卫·桑格（我曾在纽约州怀特普莱恩斯与他同读高中）撰写了一篇精辟的文章，指出：“特朗普在过去几周里加紧力度，试图为俄罗斯正名，并让普京总统重返外交舞台，其速度之快、将泽连斯基先生描绘为和平的主要障碍、以及公然否认俄罗斯正在继续发动特朗普先生声称要结束的战争，都令人瞩目。”这些分析缺乏历史感和宏大叙事。它们敏锐地捕捉了当下时刻，却未将其置于完整的背景之中。
Two striking examples of this were major analyses of the recent developments by a pair of top reporters. David Sanger, the White House and national security correspondent (with whom I went to high school in White Plains, New York), wrote a smart piece noting: “Trump’s intensifying effort in the past few weeks to rehabilitate Russia and usher President Vladimir V. Putin back into diplomatic society is remarkable for its speed, its characterization of Mr. Zelensky as the primary obstacle to peace, and its brazen denial that Russia is continuing the war that Mr. Trump says he is trying to end.”There’s no sense of history or of the overarching narrative in those analyses. They sharply capture the moment. But they do not place it in full context.
记者瓦莱丽·霍普金斯睿智地指出：“特朗普抛弃了美国多年的外交政策，公开拥抱普京，并减轻了对克里姆林宫的经济压力。与此同时，特朗普将试图抵御俄罗斯入侵、据称是美国盟友的乌克兰总统泽连斯基妖魔化。”她指出：“普京从未像现在这样接近他的目标——在无需在乌克兰问题上做出任何妥协的情况下，实现与华盛顿关系正常化。”这些是扎实且富有洞察力的解读。但两人均未提及俄罗斯干预2016年大选以助特朗普赢得白宫这一事实。
Correspondent Valerie Hopkins sagely noted“Mr. Trump has set aside years of U.S. foreign policy by openly embracing Mr. Putin and easing the economic pressure on the Kremlin. At the same time, Mr. Trump has vilified President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine, the putative American ally trying to defend his nation against a Russian invasion.”She pointed out, “Putin has never been so close to his goal of normalizing relations with Washington without having to make any compromises on Ukraine.”These were solid and perceptive takes. But neither mentioned that Russia attacked the 2016 election to help Trump win the White House.
或者，特朗普通过接受并附和普京的虚假否认，援助并纵容了那次攻击。或者在随后的选举中，普京作为其对美国和西方持续进行的“暮光战争”的一部分，继续为特朗普的利益开展虚假信息和影响力行动。或者，特朗普从未承认这场灰色地带战争，因此成为外国对手对美国发动的这一攻击的同谋。或者，特朗普在第二次入主白宫期间，运作着自己的虚假信息行动，发布原属机密的信息，他和他的爪牙谎称这些信息表明2016年并不存在俄罗斯的攻击。
Or that Trump aided and abetted that attack by accepting and echoing Putin’s false denials. Or that in subsequent elections, Putin, as part of his ongoing twilight war against the United States and the West, continued to mount disinformation and influence operations for Trump’s benefit. Or that Trump has never acknowledged this gray-zone warfare and has thus been complicit in this assault waged by a foreign adversary on the US. Or that Trump, during his second stint in the White House, has run his own disinformation operation that releases formerly classified information that he and his minions falsely claim shows that there was no Russian assault in 2016.
或者，普京目前正通过其虚假信息操作人员散布伪造视频、推送针对民主党候选人的诽谤性指控，从而干预中期选举。（见此处）现在发生的事情，既是普京削弱美国和西方的长期行动的顶点，也是特朗普多年来渴望与普京建立纽带的愿望的实现——而这一渴望一直被普京所利用。
Or that Putin is currently meddling in the midterm elections by having his disinformation operators spread fake videos pushing scurrilous allegations against Democratic candidates. (See here What’s now happening is both the culmination of Putin’s long-term operation to weaken the United States and the West, and the fulfillment of Trump’s yearslong craving to forge a bond with Putin—a yearning Putin has exploited.
这些分析中既没有历史感，也没有总体叙事。它们敏锐地捕捉到了当下。但它们没有将其置于完整的背景之中。现在发生的事情，既是普京削弱美国和西方的长期行动的顶点——这是他恢复俄罗斯/苏联帝国宏大计划的一部分——也是特朗普多年来渴望与普京建立纽带的愿望的实现——而这一渴望一直被普京所利用。这位俄罗斯暴君十多年来一直在谋划实现这一目标。而在同一时期，特朗普通过一再为普京遮掩、并宣称所有关于俄罗斯对美国发动混合战争的言论都是“深层政府”阴谋，背叛了这个国家。
There’s no sense of history or of the overarching narrative in those analyses. They sharply capture the moment. But they do not place it in full context. What’s now happening is both the culmination of Putin’s long-term operation to weaken the United States and the West, which is part of his grand scheme to restore the Russian/Soviet empire, and the fulfillment of Trump’s yearslong craving to forge a bond with Putin—a yearning Putin has exploited. The Russian tyrant has been scheming for over a decade to accomplish this. And for that same stretch, Trump has betrayed the nation by repeatedly covering for Putin and declaring all talk of Russia’s hybrid warfare against the US is a Deep State conspiracy.
俄罗斯人明白这一点。“干得好，特朗普，”普京的一位评论员在国有电视台上宣称。“今天，他站在我们这边！”霍普金斯在她的文章中引用了亲普京的记者玛丽娜·阿赫梅多娃的话：“在我看来，胜利已经实现了。”如今，我这本书的标题似乎是一个合理的评价。但这是因为这个标题附着于对导致特朗普向普京投降的来龙去脉的详尽讲述。
The Russians get this. “Well done, Trump,” one of Putin’s pundits proclaimed on state-controlled television. “Today, he’s on our side!”And in her article, Hopkins quotes pro-Putin journalist Marina Akhmedova: “In my personal view, victory has already been achieved.”The title of my book seems a reasonable appraisal these days. But that’s because it’s attached to a thorough telling of what has led to Trump’s surrender to Putin.
尽管人们对特朗普绥靖并屈从于这位他曾要求做自己“新最好的朋友”的独裁者感到震惊和愤怒，但或许更令人愤慨的是，十年来，普京的行动和特朗普的配合一直明明白白地发生在众目睽睽之下，而媒体和政治界在这段时间的大部分里却忽视或无视了这一事件。这种情况至今仍在发生。
Even though there’s much shock and anger over Trump’s appeasement of and submission to the dictator he once asked to be his “new best friend” perhaps a bigger outrage is that for 10 years, Putin’s operation and Trump’s collaboration occurred in plain sight and the media and political world for most of this time have neglected or ignored this story. And that’s still happening today.