周末，国务卿马尔科·鲁比奥在亚特兰大举行新闻发布会，期间面对记者关于其上司的一个犀利提问。
Over the weekend, Secretary of State Marco Rubio held a press conference in Atlanta, where he confronted a good question about his boss.
记者指出，唐纳德·特朗普最近几周“在竞选活动中非常活跃”，告诉选民他很高兴丹麦“把格陵兰岛给了”美国。“总统是否误解了达成的协议？”记者问道。
Donald Trump, the reporter noted, has been “very active on the campaign trail” in recent weeks, telling voters how glad he is that Denmark “gave Greenland” to the United States. “Has the president misunderstood the agreement that was made?” the reporter asked.
“是的，我不确定您指的是哪些言论，”鲁比奥回答，并补充说总统“完全知悉”最新细节。
“Yeah, I’m not sure what comments you’re referring to,” Rubio replied, adding that the president is “fully apprised of” the latest details.
鲁比奥最近成为历史上第一位、也是唯一一位为政党站台助选的国务卿，他却声称不知道老板反复说过的关于美国接管北极岛屿的言论，这令人费解。但更糟的是，如果“总统完全知悉”美国对格陵兰岛政策的细节属实，那就意味着他与现实的联系已无法挽回地断裂。
It’s curious that Rubio, who recently became the first and only secretary of state ever to hit the campaign trail in support of a political party, claimed to have no idea what his boss has repeatedly said about the U.S. taking control of an arctic island. But making matters worse is the idea that Trump is “fully apprised of” the details surrounding U.S. policy toward Greenland — because if that’s true, it suggests his relationship with reality is irretrievably broken.
事实上，就在美国选民开始投票的选举日，这位共和党总统通过电话连线福克斯新闻，虚假宣称欧洲“刚把格陵兰岛给了”美国，这绝对没有发生。（格陵兰岛议员将于周二投票表决一项最近与美国和丹麦达成的三边安全协议，但显而易见，这并没有把岛屿移交给美国。）尽管如此，特朗普前一天也这么说了。再前一天也这么说了。再前一天也这么说了。以及再前几天也这么说了。在之前的几天里更是说了好几次。
不知为何，所有这些似乎都逃过了负责执行政府外交政策的官员的视线。
In fact, as Election Day got underway for American voters, the Republican president appeared via phone on Fox News, where he falsely declared that Europe “just gave” Greenland to the U.S., which most certainly did not happen. (Lawmakers in Greenland vote on Tuesday to approve a recent trilateral security agreement with the U.S. and Denmark, but quite obviously that didn’t hand over the island to the U.S.) Nevertheless, Trump said the same thing a day earlier. And the day before that. And the day before that. And a few days before that. And several times in the days before that. Somehow, all of this apparently escaped the attention of the official responsible for implementing the administration’s foreign policy.
我无法确切断定特朗普是故意误导公众，还是真的对一个连他本人都理应理解的问题感到困惑。但考虑到人们可能会倾向于相信总统，有必要重申：美国并没有“得到”格陵兰岛，无论他假装多少次也是如此。正如《纽约时报》9月报道的那样：周二，他签署了一份文件，为扩大美国在该岛的军事存在、开设新基地铺平道路。
I’m not in a position to say with certainty whether Trump is deliberately trying to mislead the public or is genuinely confused about a subject even he ought to be able to understand. But to the extent that people might be tempted to believe the president, it’s probably worth re-emphasizing that the U.S. didn’t “get” Greenland, no matter how many times he pretends otherwise. As The New York Times reported in September: On Tuesday, he signed a document that paves the way to expanding the U.S. military presence on the island, opening new bases.
但该文件明确未将任何领土转让给美国。没人——尤其是统治这片辽阔但大多空旷土地的丹麦——愿意强调这一点，生怕特朗普会否认他刚刚赞誉为“对欧洲和美国都极为巨大”的协议。对特朗普而言，这是一次重大退让。
But it explicitly stops short of conveying any territory to the United States. And no one — especially Denmark, which governs the vast but mostly empty space — wanted to emphasize that point, for fear that Mr. Trump might renounce the agreement he had just hailed as “tremendous for Europe and for the United States.”For Mr. Trump, it was a major retreat.
我能理解总统为何会觉得这很尴尬（假设他确实了解政治现实）。毕竟，他在九个月前曾向美国人做出“100%”的担保，承诺将获得该岛——结果九个月后却接受了一项只给了他原本就已拥有的东西的协议。
I can appreciate why the president might find this embarrassing (assuming he’s actually aware of the political reality). He did, after all, make a “100%” guarantee to Americans that he would acquire the island — nine months before he settled for a deal that gave him what he already had.
但总统越是兜售关于他虚构的格陵兰岛收购的胡言乱语，就越明显地显示出，他正厚颜无耻地试图改写近期历史，重写他第二任期内较为著名的外交政策惨败之一。
But the more the president peddles nonsense about his imaginary acquisition of Greenland, the more obvious it becomes that he’s brazenly attempting to rewrite recent history about one of the more notable foreign policy fiascos of his second term.