一个幽灵正在美国游荡，我们必须将其驱除。共和党人已将选举日的赌注讲得清清楚楚。前新闻秘书卡罗琳·利维特曾表示，中期选举是“共产主义与常识之间的选择”。据密西西比州参议员辛迪·海德-史密斯（目前正在竞选连任）称，这个周二是“共产主义对决民主，大政府对决自由市场。赌注再高不过了。”众议院议长迈克·约翰逊认为，伊朗战争并非美国唯一的前线：“我们正在本土对抗共产主义，并在世界各地对抗邪恶的恐怖分子和暴君。”
A spectre is haunting America, and we must exorcise it. Republicans have made the stakes for Election Day clear. Former Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt has said the midterms are “a choice between communism and common sense.”According to Mississippi Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith (currently up for reelection), this Tuesday is “communism versus democracy, and big government versus the free market. It could not be higher stakes.”Speaker of the House Mike Johnson believes the war in Iran is not America’s only frontline: “We’re fighting communism on our own shores, and we’re fighting evil terrorists and tyrants around the world.”
总统本人在九月的共和党全国代表大会上警告：“如果他们赢了，这将变成一个共产主义国家。”这些呼声来自内部。
The President himself warned, “It's going to be a communist country if they win” at the GOP convention this September. These calls are coming from inside the house.
唐纳德·特朗普与许多共产主义统治者的共同点，比现代史上任何一位美国总统都多。二战以来，没有其他总统像他这样，对从贸易、工业、能源生产到好莱坞（对外国电影征收100%关税）等一切事务，都如此亲自过问地指挥美国经济。连美学风格都吻合：两年来，华盛顿特区一直笼罩在“伟大领袖”肖像的巨幅横幅之下，坦克和装甲车开上宪法大道（既参加阅兵也执行巡逻），总统的生日则在白宫草坪上通过电视转播的流血运动来庆祝。
Donald Trump has more in common with many communist rulers than any U.S. President in modern history. No other President since World War Two has taken as much of a personal interest in dictating the American economy on everything from trade to industry to energy production to Hollywood (with 100% tariffs on foreign films). The aesthetics match: for two years Washington, D.C., has been subjected to towering banners of Dear Leader’s portrait, tanks and APCs rolling down Constitution Avenue (both on parade and on patrol), and the President’s birthday celebrated with televised bloodsport on the White House lawn.
最后，凡是想与特朗普政府打交道，腐败、拍马屁和内部交易已成为入场券，其程度足以让苏联的委员们脸红。当然，还有对红色的偏爱。
Finally, the extent of corruption, brownnosing, and inside dealing that has become table stakes for anybody engaging with the Trump administration is enough to make Soviet apparatchiks blush. And of course, there is the fondness for the color red.
我并非第一个注意到共和党在反社会主义问题上表现出虚伪的人。卡托研究所的斯科特·林西科姆——我亲切地称他为“地球上最后几个活着的自由意志主义者之一”——一直在推特上持续关注这一议题。而我此前未曾见过、并希望在此阐述的是：一个全面的论证，即当前的共和党显然是美国面临的最大社会主义威胁。
I am not the first one to notice the Republican hypocrisy when it comes to fighting socialism. Scott Lincicome of the Cato Institute—who I affectionately refer to as “one of the last living libertarians on Earth”—has been on this Twitter beat for a while. What I have not seen before, and hope to lay out here, is a comprehensive case that the current Republican Party is clearly the biggest socialist threat facing America.
如果你和我一样，不是社会主义者，也不希望美国成为一个社会主义国家，那么你周二的选择应该显而易见。投民主党的票，以阻止社会主义。
If, like me, you are not a socialist and do not want the United States to be a socialist country, then your decision on Tuesday should be obvious. Vote Democratic to stop socialism.
社会主义就是政府做事 问十几个社会主义者什么是社会主义，你会得到十三个答案。如果再把一些非社会主义者纳入调查，答案的数量会呈指数级增长。我已经知道，很可能有些读者会因为我在上文中隐含地将共产主义和社会主义混为一谈而感到不满。我并非在争辩唐纳德·特朗普是一个随身携带《共产党宣言》的马克思列宁主义者——主要是因为他不具备拥有任何类似连贯政治意识形态的智力能力。特朗普代表的是一种类似于社会主义实践失败的提炼物，却没有任何理论。
Socialism is when the government does things Ask a dozen socialists for a definition of socialism and you’ll get a baker’s dozen answers. Include some non-socialists in your survey and the number grows exponentially. Already I know there are probably some readers upset about the fact I implicitly conflated communism and socialism in the paragraphs above. I am not arguing that Donald Trump is a Manifesto-carrying Marxist-Leninist—mostly because he is not intellectually capable of having anything resembling a coherent political ideology. What Trump represents is something like a distillation of socialism’s failures in practice without any of the theory.
特朗普绝非唯一一个在不提“共产主义”的情况下实行共产主义的政治家。2009年，朝鲜宪法中所有“共产主义”的表述均被删除。这延续了金氏家族多代人试图将其主体思想与马克思和列宁的遗产划清界限的做法。在《主体政治哲学》一书中，格蕾丝·李总结了朝鲜主体思想的核心原则，其中一些听起来可能耳熟能详：“[金日成]宣称：‘……共和国政府将始终如一地贯彻独立、自给、自卫路线，以巩固国家的政治独立……更加稳固地奠定能够保证我民族完全统一、独立和繁荣的独立民族经济基础……增强国家的国防能力，以便靠自己的力量可靠地保卫祖国的安全。’”
Trump is hardly the only politician to practice communism without “communism.”In 2009 all mentions of “communism” were removed from the North Korean constitution. This follows a multi-generational practice of the Kim lineage trying to distance their Juche ideology from the legacy of Marx and Lenin. In “The Political Philosophy of Juche,” Grace Lee summarizes the core principles of North Korean Juche, some of which might sound familiar: “[Kim Il Sung] declared that ‘…the Government of the Republic will implement with all consistency the line of independence, self-sustenance, and self-defense to consolidate the political independence of the country … build up more solidly the foundations of an independent national economy capable of insuring the complete unification, independence, and prosperity of our nation … increasing the country’s defense capabilities, so as to safeguard the security of the fatherland reliably by our own force.’”
“实际上，这种政治立场导致朝鲜真正成为一个隐士王国，因为主体思想对与外部大国合作施加了巨大的污名。”
“In practice, this political stance has caused North Korea to truly become a hermit kingdom because of the huge stigma juche places upon cooperation with outside powers.”
“据金正日所说，‘建设独立的民族经济，就是建设一个不依赖别人、靠自己的双脚站立的经济。’当然也有细微差别——金日成承认社会主义国家之间相互合作的重要性——但(1)独立重于合作和(2)经济自给自足这两大支柱，确实与特朗普的世界观押韵。
“According to Kim Jong Il, ‘building an independent national economy means building an economy which is free from dependence on others and which stands on its own feet.’”There are nuances of course—Kim Il Sung acknowledged the importance of mutual cooperation between socialist nations—but the main pillars of (1) independence over cooperation and (2) economic autarky certainly rhyme with Trump’s worldview.
当超越其表述的原则进行审视时，主体思想与特朗普第二任期的比较变得更加贴切。主体思想的决定性特征在于它与金氏领导人周围的个人崇拜是何等不可分割。根据该国宪法，其官方名称为金日成金正日主义——至少在今年早些时候之前是这样，此后宪法删除了对金日成和金正日的提及，转而颂扬金正恩。特朗普的名字不在宪法中，但他的个人崇拜已被写入许多官方政府项目：从一款名为F-47的战斗机，到概念上的“特朗普级战列舰”，再到面向美国儿童（或许很快面向所有美国人）的“特朗普账户”。
Juche becomes an even better comparison for Trump’s second term when looking beyond its stated principles. The defining characteristic of Juche ideology is how inseparable it is from the personality cult surrounding the Kim leaders themselves. The official name is Kimilsungism-Kimjongilism, as written in the country’s constitution—or at least it was until earlier this year, when references to Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il were removed in lieu of praising Kim Jong Un. Trump’s name isn’t in the Constitution, but his cult of personality has been written into many official government programs: from a fighter jet named the F-47 to the notional "Trump class battleships" to “Trump Accounts” for American children (and maybe soon for all Americans).
严格定义上特朗普可能不是第一位共产主义总统，但他是我们所见过的最接近这一称谓的人。
Trump may not be the first communist President by strict definitions, but he is the closest thing any of us have seen before.
社会主义经济学 特朗普与旧日共和党最令人惊讶的分歧之一，在于他渴望对自由市场进行政治干预。更令人惊讶的是，他已在多大程度上将共和党重塑为自己的形象。特朗普按下了他能触及的每一个按钮，拉动了他能拉动的每一个杠杆——甚至包括一些本应超出他权力范围的杠杆——试图按照他的意愿引导美国经济。特朗普单枪匹马地被一套怪诞的经济目标和一套同样怪诞的经济误区所驱动。
Socialist economics One of the most surprising divergences of Trump from the GOP of yesteryear is his appetite for political intervention in the free market. Even more surprising is the extent to which he has remade the GOP in his image. Trump has pushed every button and pulled every lever within his reach—and some that are supposed to be beyond his reach—in an effort to steer the American economy as he sees fit. Trump is singularly driven by a bizarre set of economic goals and an equally bizarre set of economic misconceptions.
每当现实经济实践与他关于事物应有运作方式的理论发生冲突时，他的第一反应就是否认现实，或将其归咎于破坏活动——这简直具有社会主义色彩。而该党——老牌共和党——紧随其后。
Whenever economics in practice conflicts with his theory of how things ought to be, his first reaction is to deny reality or blame it on sabotage—quite socialist indeed. And the Party—the Grand Old Party—follows along.
特朗普经济政策的基础，是征收数千亿美元关税，表面上旨在振兴美国制造业并促进自给自足（尽管基本经济学预测结果将适得其反）。在实践中，特朗普经常将关税作为榨取利益和惩罚对手的武器——巴西因对待同样是失败政变领导人的博尔索纳罗的方式，被征收50%关税。共和党人曾自鸣得意地拿“社会主义经济学”开玩笑，而特朗普正在将经济常识推向新低。他认为贸易逆差是美国支付给其他政府的补贴。最初的“解放日”关税公式，仅仅是用一个国家的贸易逆差除以其进口额。
The foundation of Trump’s economic policy has been levying hundreds of billions of dollars in tariffs in a supposed effort to boost American manufacturing and promote self-sufficiency (despite basic economics predicting the opposite). In practice, Trump regularly wields tariffs as a weapon for extracting favors and punishing his opponents—Brazil was hit with 50% tariffs for their treatment of fellow failed coup leader Jair Bolsonaro. For as much as Republicans have smugly joked about “socialist economics,” Trump is setting new lows in economic literacy. He thinks a trade deficit is a subsidy the US pays to other governments. The original Liberation Day tariff formula was just dividing a country’s trade deficit by its imports.
特朗普的关税政策源于他对美国工业的一种漫画式痴迷，这种痴迷同样渗透进了能源政策。总统心目中的工业景象宛如孩童视角：大汽车由大机器在大工厂里生产，大烟囱林立。当然，这些“大而美”的工厂不该用来自太阳能和风电厂那种“软弱、娘娘腔、自由派”的电力驱动；而必须用来自化石燃料那种“强壮、男子气概、保守派”的电力驱动。一方面，白宫拿出数十亿美元诱导能源公司停建风电场；另一方面，它却出资兴建十多年来首批燃煤电厂，尽管煤电的每千瓦时成本现在已大幅高于风电。
Trump’s tariffs are motivated by his obsession with a caricature of American industry, and this obsession influences energy policy as well. The President’s vision of industry is that of a child: big cars made by big machines in big factories with big smokestacks. Of course these big, beautiful factories shouldn’t be powered with weak, girly, liberal electricity from solar and wind plants; it must be powered with strong, manly, conservative electricity from fossil fuels. On one hand the White House is offering billions of dollars for energy companies to stop building wind farms, and on the other it is paying to build the first new coal plants in over a decade, despite coal power now being substantially more expensive per kilowatt-hour than wind power.
为了意识形态原因特意支付更高成本购买特定类型电力，过去是共和党人斥为“社会主义”的做法——当时是民主党支持清洁能源。如今风水轮流转。
Going out of one’s way to pay a higher cost for particular types of electricity for ideological reasons used to be something Republicans called socialism—when Democrats supported clean energy. How the tables have turned.
特朗普对自由意志主义者最爱引用的糟糕社会主义经济学范例——价格管制——并不陌生。当那场为期三天的对伊朗“特别军事行动”拖得比三天更久时，总统敦促石油公司将汽油价格维持在每加仑2.50美元，并下令司法部调查石油公司为何不降价。随后他背书“自由燃油”品牌加油站，承诺以低于市场价（精确到3.47美元）出售汽油——且符合典型社会主义套路，这极有可能是一场利用赃油的骗局。或许特朗普总统绑架马杜罗，就是为了能当面向他讨教经济建议。
Trump is no stranger to every libertarian’s favorite example of bad socialist economics: price controls. When the three-day special military operation in Iran lasted a bit longer than three days, the President urged petroleum companies to keep gas to $2.50 a gallon and ordered the Department of Justice to investigate oil companies for not lowering their prices. He then sponsored Freedom Fuel, a line of gas stations promising to sell gas at below market prices ($3.47 to be precise)—and in typical socialist fashion it was probably a scam using stolen gas. Maybe President Trump kidnapped Maduro so he could ask for economic advice personally.
联邦政府在过去两年里大举收购私营企业国有股份，这种狂欢前所未见：达成三十多笔交易，总价值合计180亿美元。
Completely without precedent is the spree of national shares the federal government has taken in private firms over the past two years: over thirty deals worth a combined $18 billion.
图2并未涵盖特朗普政府所有权的全部范围。一些关键交易是在没有直接投资的情况下达成的，例如特朗普在Lithium Americas（美洲锂业）中获得的5%股份。一些交易没有容易衡量的现金价值，例如与Anduril（安德鲁尔）达成的、获得其巴尔的摩潜艇造船厂40%所有权的协议。还有一些是“黄金股”交易，政府在没有财务股份的情况下获得否决权。
Figure 2 doesn’t cover the full extent of government ownership under Trump. Some key deals have been made without direct investment, like the 5% stake Trump took in Lithium Americas. Some have no easily measurable cash value, like the deal with Anduril for 40% of its Baltimore submarine shipyard. Some are “golden share” deals where the government gets veto power without a financial stake.
英伟达和AMD达成协议，允许向中国出口高度先进的计算机芯片，条件是向山姆大叔支付15%的佣金。特朗普甚至通过在一家委内瑞拉石油公司中获得35%股份，夺取了其他社会主义国家的生产资料。如果你仔细听，几乎能听到《国际歌》在奏响。
Nvidia and AMD struck a deal to allow the export of highly advanced computer chips to China, so long as they pay a 15% commission to Uncle Sam. Trump has even seized the means of production in other socialist countries by taking a 35% stake in a Venezuelan oil company. If you listen closely you can almost hear The Internationale playing.
而且我认为无需解释其中的讽刺意味：指责对手是共产主义者，然后又承诺如果本党赢得大选，就给每个人发一张5000美元的政府支票。
And I don’t think I need to explain the irony of accusing your opponents of being communists and then promising to send everybody a government check for $5,000 if your party wins the election.
像许多社会主义政权一样，当事情不如意时，特朗普政府经常对经济数据撒谎、大喊破坏，或只是胡言乱语。根据特朗普的说法，美国正从关税中赚取数万亿美元，并将很快偿还国家债务。当然。总统经常对汽油价格撒谎，声称的价格荒谬地低于实际平均水平。去年8月一份就业报告显得很难看时，特朗普公开解雇了BLS（劳工统计局）局长，指责她是“拜登的政治任命官员”。
Like many socialist regimes, the Trump administration often lies about economic figures, cries sabotage, or just blathers nonsense when things aren’t going their way. According to Trump, the United States is making trillions of dollars from tariffs and will soon pay down the national debt. Sure. The President regularly lies about gas prices, claiming absurdly low prices compared to the actual average. When a jobs report looked bad last August, Trump publicly fired the BLS commissioner, accusing her of being a “Biden Political Appointee.”
对于失败的社会主义经济体而言，一个屡试不爽的策略就是干脆停止发布经济统计数据。1937年人口普查统计的人数比斯大林想要的少（由于饥荒），他便宣布结果作废，并将普查局局长枪决。委内瑞拉中央银行在2015年至2019年间未发布任何通胀数据。朝鲜根本不发布任何数字；关于朝鲜的最佳数据来自韩国的韩国银行，该行每年进行估算。
A tried and true strategy for failing socialist economies is to simply stop publishing economic statistics. When the 1937 census counted fewer people than Stalin wanted (due to famine), he had the results annulled and the head of the census bureau shot. Venezuela’s central bank did not publish any inflation data from 2015–2019. North Korea doesn’t publish any numbers on anything at all; the best data on the North comes from the Bank of Korea, in the South, which makes yearly estimations.
特朗普向他的同志们学习，让我国许多最勇敢的统计学家噤声。在从补充营养援助计划（SNAP）削减数十亿美元资金——导致数百万人失去食物援助，其中包括150万儿童——不久后，美国农业部宣布终止《家庭食品安全报告》，这是美国衡量食品不安全的官方指标。官方新闻稿极具奥威尔风格，听起来简直像讽刺作品：“这些多余、昂贵、政治化且无关紧要的研究无非是在制造恐慌。30年来，这项研究——最初由克林顿政府创建，旨在支持扩大SNAP资格和福利配额——未能呈现任何超越主观、自由派废话的内容。”
Trump has learned from his fellow comrades and has silenced many of our country’s bravest statisticians. Soon after cutting billions of dollars from SNAP—thus causing millions to lose food assistance, including 1.5 million children—the USDA announced the termination of Household Food Security Reports, the official US measure of food insecurity. The official press release is so Orwellian it sounds like parody: “These redundant, costly, politicized, and extraneous studies do nothing more than fear monger. For 30 years, this study—initially created by the Clinton administration as a means to support the increase of SNAP eligibility and benefit allotments—failed to present anything more than subjective, liberal fodder.”
社会主义美学 相似之处并不止于特朗普对社会主义经济工具箱的偏爱。总统对美学的痴迷以及个人崇拜式的公开展示，在平壤比在华盛顿更让人感到习以为常。在他重返办公室的第一年，总统举办了一场阅兵式庆祝生日（由帕兰蒂尔和Coinbase赞助），坦克车开过宪法大道。今年，他在林肯纪念堂台阶和白宫草坪上举办了一场终极格斗冠军赛（UFC）庆祝活动——比赛以一名运动员向数百万付费观看的观众辱骂前第一夫人米歇尔·奥巴马而告终。相比之下，丹尼斯·罗德曼2014年为金正恩唱生日歌显得谦逊得多。
Socialist aesthetics The similarities do not end with Trump’s taste for the socialist economic toolkit. The President’s obsession with aesthetics and public displays of personal worship feel more at home in Pyongyang than Washington. In his first year back in office, the President hosted a military parade to celebrate his birthday (sponsored by Palantir and Coinbase), rolling tanks down Constitution Avenue. This year he celebrated with a UFC fight on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial and White House lawn—one that ended with an athlete hurling slurs at former First Lady Michelle Obama to millions of spectators on pay-per-view. Dennis Rodman singing Kim Jong Un a happy birthday in 2014 seems humble in comparison.
特朗普试图将国家首都重塑为自己的形象，在此过程中亵渎或毁坏了许多珍贵遗产。国家广场倒影池整个夏天都处于关闭状态，因为他翻新失败，至今仍未开放。上个月，东波托马克高尔夫球场数百棵树被砍伐，违反了法院命令。白宫整个东翼被夷为平地，为建在军事综合体顶部的舞厅腾出空间。这种共产主义式的做法还在继续：受朝鲜首都平壤启发，尼古拉·齐奥塞斯库曾将布加勒斯特市中心大片区域推平，为其总统府腾地。
Trump has tried to remake the nation’s capital in his image, desecrating or destroying many of its treasures in the process. The National Mall reflecting pool was closed all summer after his failed attempts at renovation and remains closed to this day. Hundreds of trees were cut down in the East Potomac golf course in violation of a court order last month. The entire East Wing of the White House has been levelled to make way for a ballroom atop a military complex. The communist parallels continue: inspired by the North Korean capital of Pyongyang, Nicolae Ceaușescu had large parts of downtown Bucharest bulldozed to make room for his presidential palace.
我竟如此迅速地习惯了市中心联邦大楼墙面上悬挂着总统巨幅画像的景象，这让人不安。最高领袖不悦的目光从司法部总部俯瞰着华盛顿特区的街道，全副武装的士兵在巡逻地铁——这本该是廉价八十年代电影里的桥段，而非现实生活中参观史密森学会时的见闻。
It’s unsettling how quickly I’ve adapted to the sight of towering banners displaying the President’s face on the side of federal buildings downtown. Dear Leader’s unhappy glare looming over the streets of D.C. from the Department of Justice headquarters as armed soldiers patrol the Metro should be something out of a cheesy ’80s movie, not a real life visit to the Smithsonian.
说到史密森学会，特朗普热衷于改写历史，这一点与任何社会主义领导人如出一辙。美国历史博物馆已从其总统展览的弹劾部分删除了关于特朗普的提及。白宫的总统肖像走廊如今成了一场荒诞的宣传秀。“沉睡的乔·拜登是美国历史上迄今为止最差的总统，”一块铭牌上写道，它摆放在一张自动签名笔的照片下方。巴拉克·侯赛因·奥巴马的肖像挂在小布什和唐纳德·J·特朗普之间，其成就栏列出了通过“极不奏效的‘负担不起’医保法案”以及“主导制造了‘通俄、通俄、通俄’骗局，这是美国历史上最严重的政治丑闻”。
Speaking of the Smithsonian, Trump loves rewriting history as much as any socialist leader. The American History Museum removed mention of Trump from the impeachment section of its Presidents exhibit. The White House’s hallway of presidential portraits is now an exercise in grotesque propaganda. “Sleepy Joe Biden was, by far, the worst President of American History,” reads the plaque sitting beneath a photo of an autopen. Barack Hussein Obama sits between George W. Bush and Donald J. Trump and lists some of his accomplishments as passing “the highly ineffective ‘Unaffordable’ Care Act” and presiding “over the creation of the Russia, Russia, Russia Hoax, the worst political scandal in American History.”
特朗普和金正日恐怕会因对文化艺术的共同痴迷而惺惺相惜。就职后不久，特朗普将目光投向了一场更为重要的“选举”——竞选肯尼迪中心董事会主席。此后，白宫便陷入了一场旷日持久、惨烈的法律战，涉及该剧院、其翻修工程及命名权。这出闹剧在今夏达到荒诞高潮，当时一名法官下令从该设施外立面上移除特朗普的名字。
Trump and Kim Jong Il would likely bond over their mutual fixation on the cultural arts. Soon after inauguration, Trump turned his sights to a far more important election—becoming the chair of the Kennedy Center board. Since then the White House has been entrenched in a prolonged and bloody legal battle regarding the theater, its renovations, and its naming rights. This saga came to an absurd climax this summer when a judge ordered the removal of Trump’s name from the facility’s facade.
数百名华盛顿特区居民聚集围观，亲眼目睹破坏痕迹被清理，但出于怨恨，总统下令施工队搭起帆布遮挡，剥夺了他们的看客快感。在成为最高领袖之前，金正日是个大影迷，并将这份热情施展于朝鲜劳动党宣传煽动部电影部门部长的职位上——甚至绑架了一名韩国导演和女演员为他表演。尽管心生不满，特朗普尚未因艺术家取消肯尼迪中心的演出而绑架任何艺术家。但我们还有两年时间。
Hundreds of D.C. residents formed a crowd to watch the vandalism get cleaned firsthand, but out of spite the President ordered construction crews to put up a tarp to deny them the spectacle. Before he was Supreme Leader, Kim Jong Il was a big cinephile and applied his passion as director of the movies department in the DPRK’s Propaganda and Agitation Division—going as far as to kidnap a South Korean director and actress to perform for him. Despite his frustrations, Trump hasn’t kidnapped any artists for cancelling performances at the Kennedy Center. But we’ve still got two years to go.
以领袖命名事物绝非共产主义国家的专利——毕竟我们的首都叫华盛顿特区——但通常我们是为前任领袖命名，而非现任者。如今我们有了“特朗普级”战列舰、F-47战斗机（因特朗普是第47任总统而得名），以及唐纳德·J·特朗普国际机场（原棕榈滩国际机场）——尽管他尚未像苏联共产党人、土库曼斯坦终身总统萨帕尔穆拉特·尼亚佐夫那样，把历法月份也以自己命名。
Naming things after leaders is by no means unique to communist countries—our nation’s capital is Washington, D.C. after all—but typically we name things for former leaders, not current ones. We now have Trump-class battleships, the F-47 fighter jet (named for Trump being the 47th president), and the Donald J. Trump International Airport (formerly Palm Beach International Airport)—though he has not yet gone so far as to name months of the calendar after himself, as Soviet communist and president-for-life of Turkmenistan Saparmurat Niyazov did.
特朗普的名字和肖像正被大量添加到政府机构的各个环节。美国铸币局发行的金币和国务院签发的护照上都能看到他的肖像。别忘了“特朗普账户”，那简直就是资本再分配的工具（当然，由总统及其亲信酌情决定）。
Trump’s name and face are being added to facets of government bureaucracy left and right. His portrait can be found on gold coins from the US Mint and passports issued by the State Department. Don’t forget about “Trump Accounts,” which are quite literally a vehicle for redistribution of capital (at the President and his cronies’ discretion, of course).
在第二个任期内，总统一直计划建造一座拱门纪念碑：“人们最熟知的是法国巴黎的凯旋门，我们要在高度上大幅超越它”，并坚持要求该拱门高于法国凯旋门的164英尺（约50米）。还有谁想建一座比巴黎凯旋门更高的国家拱门纪念碑？金日成，为庆祝他的70岁生日。
Throughout this second administration, the President has been planning to build an arch monument: “The one that people know mostly is the Arc de Triomphe in Paris, France, and we’re going to top it by, I think, a lot,” insisting that the arch be taller than the French Arc’s 164 feet. You know who else wanted a big national arch monument built to be taller than Paris’ Arc de Triomphe? Kim Il Sung, for his 70th birthday.
社会主义政府 特朗普政府腐败的规模、范围和厚颜无耻程度令人难以置信。许多人试图完成记录这一切的艰巨任务，我不羡慕这项工作。不幸的是，人们已经学会玩特朗普的游戏，华盛顿政治已将公开行贿和拍马屁视为制胜策略。
Socialist government The scale, scope, and shamelessness of corruption in the Trump administration is beyond belief. Many have tried the daunting task of documenting it all, and I do not envy the task. Unfortunately, people have learned to play Trump’s game, and D.C. politics has adapted to open bribery and brownnosing as winning strategies.
几乎我遇到的每一位经济学教授都向我灌输了这样一个观念：市场始终存在。社会主义国家只是将市场从公开的、基于价格的市场转移到了封闭的、基于影响力的市场。特朗普将白宫变成了这两者的邪恶混合体，权力核心圈内的人士相互角力，以博取总统青睐从而谋取利益。
Almost every economics professor I’ve had has instilled in me the idea that markets always exist. Socialist countries merely shift markets from open, price-based ones to closed, influence-based ones. Trump has transformed the White House into an unholy combination of the two, where powerful insiders jockey against each other to gain the President’s favor for the sake of profit.
为了寻求总统关税制度的减免，许多公司决定直奔源头。瑞士遭遇39%关税后，包括劳力士首席执行官在内的瑞士商界领袖访问白宫，向总统赠送礼物，其中包括一根刻有数字45和47的金条。几周内，对瑞士的关税降至15%。2025年8月6日，时任苹果公司首席执行官蒂姆·库克前往白宫，赠送一块刻有其名字的24K金牌。随后，苹果获得特别豁免，免征半导体关税。辉瑞同意加入总统的“特朗普处方药”药品定价计划，以换取三年医药关税宽限期。
Seeking relief from the President’s tariff regime, many companies decided to go straight to the source. After Switzerland was hit with 39% tariffs, Swiss business leaders, including the CEO of Rolex, visited the White House and presented the President with gifts including a gold bar engraved with the numbers 45 and 47. Within weeks, tariffs on Switzerland were lowered to 15%. On Aug 6, 2025, then-CEO of Apple Tim Cook took a trip to the White House to deliver a 24-karat gold plaque with his name on it. Apple was then specifically exempted from tariffs on semiconductors. Pfizer agreed to sign-on to the President’s “TrumpRx” drug pricing plan in exchange for a three-year grace period on pharmaceutical tariffs.
利用私人恩惠影响总统的做法已超越经济领域。哥伦比亚广播公司（CBS News）称，总统创造了一个“蓬勃发展的赦免经济”，罪犯可以通过向特朗普献媚来花钱买自由。第二届特朗普政府期间，70%的赦免申请绕过了司法部赦免办公室，直接送往椭圆形办公室。罪犯和欺诈者深知这一经济运作模式，并考虑公开转向“让美国再次伟大”（MAGA）政治阵营，以期获得“免入狱金牌”。
Leveraging personal favors out of the President extends beyond economics. The President has created what CBS News described as a “booming pardon economy” where criminals can buy their way out of prison by sucking up to Trump. Seventy percent of pardon applications during the second Trump administration have bypassed the Department of Justice’s pardon office, instead being sent straight to the Oval Office. Criminals and fraudsters are well aware of this economy and consider making a public pivot to MAGA politics in the hopes of winning a get-out-of-jail-free card.
因欺诈罪被判处联邦监狱25年徒刑的山姆·班克曼-弗里德（Sam Bankman-Fried），在其策略备忘录中亲笔写下“上塔克·卡尔森（Tucker Carlson）节目，公开表明共和党人身份”。妮琪·米娜（Nicki Minaj）的哥哥因强奸儿童被判25年徒刑，她的丈夫因企图强奸一名16岁少女被定罪。如今她可能成为新闻秘书的候选人。“恋童癖阴谋论”这一理论就像引力一样存在。
Sam Bankman-Fried, sentenced to twenty-five years in federal prison on fraud charges, literally wrote down “Go on Tucker Carlsen, come out as a republican” in his strategy notes. Nicki Minaj’s brother was sentenced to twenty-five years for child rape and her husband was convicted for the attempted rape of a 16-year-old girl. Now she might be in the running to be Press Secretary. Pedocon theory is a theory like gravity.
政治任命官员和联邦雇员的选拔不再看重才干或能力，而是看重党派忠诚。情报机构和联邦执法部门的求职者被问及对1月6日暴乱的看法。问题包括暴乱是否为“内部策划”以及2020年大选是否被窃取。《华盛顿太阳报》（The Washington Sun）报道，国务院在考核晋升外交官时，询问其投票记录和竞选捐款历史，尽管联邦法律禁止以政治派别为由作出人事决定。
Political appointees and federal employees are no longer selected for merit or competence, but party loyalty. Job applicants for intelligence agencies and federal law enforcement were asked about their opinions on the January 6th insurrection. Questions included whether the insurrection was an “inside job” and whether the 2020 election was stolen. The Washington Sun reports that the State Department has been asking diplomats up for promotion about their voting record and campaign donation history, despite federal law prohibiting personnel decisions being made on the basis of political affiliation.
联邦招聘体系之外的关键体制人物也面临类似的忠诚度测试。在参议院就任美联储主席的听证会上，凯文·沃什（Kevin Warsh）拒绝回答乔·拜登是否赢得了2020年大选。新任命的联邦法官在其参议院听证会上也做了同样的拒答。
Key institutional figures outside the federal hiring pipeline are subject to similar loyalty tests. During a Senate hearing before his appointment as chair of the Federal Reserve, Kevin Warsh refused to answer whether or not Joe Biden won the 2020 election. Newly appointed federal judges have done the same in their own Senate hearings.
最令人悲哀的是，强权企业和首席执行官们竟甘愿极力迁就、百般迎合特朗普那些最琐碎、最毫无意义的表态。“奥威尔式”这个词用得太滥了，但我实在想不出别的词能形容苹果和谷歌地图竟依据总统的心血来潮，将墨西哥湾和安大略湖改名。即便是身家万亿的AI行业商业巨头，也争相在特朗普面前俯首帖耳，顺从他那“双倍加好”的新话词汇。
Most pathetic is how far powerful companies and CEOs have been willing to bend over backwards to appease Trump’s most petty and pointless displays. The word “Orwellian” is overused, but I’m not sure how else to describe both Apple and Google Maps renaming the Gulf of Mexico and Lake Ontario according to the President’s whims. Even the business titans of the trillion-dollar AI industry are eager to prostrate themselves before Trump and indulge his doubleplusgood vocabulary.
几周前，总统突然毫无征兆地开始琢磨“人工智能”这个术语。在社交媒体上搞了个投票后，他宣布从现在起美国将不再承认“人工智能”或“AI”这两个称呼——取而代之的是“SI”，即“超级智能”。几天前，他又宣布在政府文件中禁用“AI”一词，并质问《华尔街日报》为何尚未更新术语。
A few weeks ago, out of seemingly nowhere, the President started musing about the term artificial intelligence. After running a poll on social media, he declared that from now on the United States would not recognize the terms artificial intelligence or AI—instead it would be SI, for Super Intelligence. A few days ago he declared the term AI will be banned from use in government documentation and demanded to know why the Wall Street Journal had not updated their terminology.
民主党从未有总统像这样以行政命令强推那些被指责为过度“觉醒”的缩写（如LGBTQIA+）或毫无意义的变格用法（如Latinx）。请设想一下，如果某天清早乔·拜登或贝拉克·奥巴马宣布石油正式更名为“BETroleum”（注：原文双关，意指“更好石油”），会引发何种反应。英伟达首席执行官黄仁勋等科技领袖却毫不犹豫地开始谈论并发推谈论SI。我不得不问：如果拥有千亿美元却连偶尔对总统说一声“别再胡扯了”都做不到，那这笔钱到底有什么用？
For all the hell that was raised about overly “woke” acronyms like LGBTQIA+ or pointless conjugations like Latinx, no Democratic president ever mandated those terms by executive decree. Just take a moment to imagine the reaction if one morning Joe Biden or Barack Obama declared that oil would be officially renamed to BETroleum. Without missing a beat, tech leaders like Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang started speaking and tweeting about SI. At some point I have to ask what the point of a hundred billion dollars is if you cannot afford to tell the President to knock it off with his bullshit every once in a while.
与其红色不如蓝色 有人（包括我自己）指出，共和党几十年来长期敲响“社会主义”警报，反而帮真正的社会主义者在民主党内站稳了脚跟。许多左倾的年轻美国人心想：如果社会主义就是政府多管事，而他们希望政府多管点事，那也许他们就是社会主义者。
Better Dem than red Some people, myself included, have pointed out how the Republican Party ringing the socialism alarm for decades has helped to enable some genuine socialists to form a beachhead in Democratic politics. Many young Americans on the left figured if socialism is when the government does stuff, and they want the government to do more stuff, then perhaps they are socialists.
鲜少被讨论的是，共和党已在多大程度上变成了他们声称反对的那种社会主义者。经济创新集团最近的一项调查发现，现在的共和党人实际上比民主党人更支持政府持有美国公司的股份：29%的共和党人同意“美国政府应该能够在关键行业持有美国公司的股份”，而民主党人仅为22%。你可以在边缘上争论公共医保或工会化是否属于社会主义，但我实在想不出比字面意义上“夺取生产资料”更明确的社会主义做法了。
What is underdiscussed is the extent to which Republicans have become the very socialists they claim to oppose. A recent survey from the Economic Innovation Group found that current Republicans are actually more likely to support the government taking an ownership stake in American companies than Democrats: 29% of Republicans agreed that “the U.S. government should be able to take an ownership stake in American companies in key industries,” compared to just 22% of Democrats. You can argue on the margins about public healthcare or unionization being socialist, but I struggle to think of anything more clearly socialist than literally seizing the means of production.
共和党作为自由市场捍卫者的日子已经结束了，这不仅仅关乎特朗普的关税。虽然许多本土主义者仍坚持错误且谬误的论点，认为关税利于经济或移民有害，但有些人已开始咬紧牙关辩称，为了国家利益，付出经济代价在所值得。在2024年的一次竞选集会上，副总统万斯表示：“一百万个廉价山寨烤面包机，不值得以一个美国制造业岗位为代价。”
The Republican Party’s days as defenders of the free market are over, and it’s not just about Trump’s tariffs. While many nativists still cling to incorrect and fallacious arguments that tariffs are good for the economy or that immigrants are bad, some have begun to bite the bullet and argue that economic costs are worth paying for the sake of the nation. At a 2024 campaign rally, Vice President Vance remarked that “a million cheap knockoff toasters aren’t worth the price of a single American manufacturing job.”
共和党支持高技术合法移民的假象已让位于一直潜伏在底下的种族主义。克里斯·鲁福等人大胆地共同主持题为“印度裔问题”的播客，这明显影射“犹太人问题”，而后者随后导致了希特勒的“最终解决方案”。要是有个词能形容那种民族主义品牌的社会主义就好了。
The facade of Republican support for high-skilled legal immigration has given way to the racism that was always lurking underneath. Figures like Chris Rufo are bold enough to cohost podcasts titled “The Indian Question,” a clear reference to the Jewish Question, which was followed by Hitler’s Final Solution. If only we had a word to describe that nationalist brand of socialism.
共和党说得对，这些中期选举关乎重大。这确实是一场关乎美国未来的战斗。自由市场、法治、言论自由、美国梦，以及更多东西都在选票上。如果社会主义者获胜，对我们所有人来说都将是灾难性的。这就是为什么全国各地真正的美国爱国者必须在周二出来投票，投给民主党。
Republicans are right about the stakes for these midterms. This is indeed a battle for America’s future. Free markets, rule of law, freedom of speech, the American dream, and so much more are on the ballot. If the socialists win, it will be disastrous for us all. That is why true American patriots across the country must show up this Tuesday to vote for Democrats.
特色图片为特朗普总统与金正恩委员长会晤，摄于2019年6月30日。
Featured image is President Trump Meets with Chairman Kim Jong Un, June 30, 2019.