这就像美国选民在经历了一夜狂欢后醒来，头痛欲裂，对前一晚做出的选择悔恨不已。
It’s as if American voters, after a long night out, woke up with a bad hangover and regretted the choices they made the previous evening.
民主党在众议院轻松赢得压倒性多数席位，并夺回参议院控制权，选民传递出一个明确信号：他们已对特朗普彻底失望。在许多州，共和党遭遇了历史性惨败。是的，这是一场蓝色海啸。在南卡罗来纳州，民主党人安妮·安德鲁斯在竞选此前由格雷厄姆弟弟担任的参议员席位时，击败达琳·格雷厄姆，取得惊人胜利。在得克萨斯州，民主党籍州众议员詹姆斯·塔拉里科战胜共和党籍州检察长肯·帕克斯顿，赢得参议员席位；州众议员吉娜·伊纳霍萨击败共和党籍州长格雷格·阿博特。
With the Democrats handily winning a huge majority in the House and capturing the Senate, the electorate sent a clear message: It’s had enough of Trump. Across many states, there was a historic rout of Republicans. Yes, a blue tsunami. In South Carolina, Democrat Annie Andrews pulled off a stunning victory against Darline Graham in the race for the Senate seat previously held by Graham’s brother. In Texas, Democratic state Rep.. James Talarico triumphed over Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton for the Senate seat, while state Rep. Gina Hinajosa bounced out Republican Gov. Greg Abbott.
在佐治亚州，民主党籍参议员乔恩·奥索夫轻松连任，前亚特兰大市长凯莎·兰斯·博托姆斯以压倒性优势当选州长。她将成为美国历史上首位担任州首席行政长官的黑人女性。
In Georgia, Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff cruised to reelection, and former Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms was decisively elected governor. She’ll become the first Black women chief executive of a state in US history.
民主党参议员候选人在红色的中西部爱荷华州和堪萨斯州获胜。在俄亥俄州，民主党人艾米·阿克顿击败维韦克·拉马斯瓦米，赢得州长选举。在佛罗里达州，成为共和党杰里曼德选区划分目标的众议院民主党人成功保住席位，而在全美范围内，民主党人在特朗普两年前以两位数优势获胜的选区中，大败共和党籍众议员。
The Democratic senatorial candidates prevailed in the red midwestern states of Iowa and Kansas In Ohio, Democrat Amy Acton vanquished Vivek Ramaswamy to win the gubernatorial contest. In Florida, House Democrats targeted by Republican gerrymandering survived, and throughout the country Democrats trounced GOP House members in districts Trump two years ago had won by double-digit margins.
随着对特朗普和共和党不利的消息接连传来，特朗普在社交媒体上连发多条帖子，抱怨福克斯新闻。白宫助手则拼命向记者强调，特朗普并不在选票上。（请播放特朗普的视频：“我只是请大家假装我在选票上。”）这些结果表明，特朗普那套丑陋的政治——谎言、欺骗、分裂、偏见、部落主义、仇恨和煽动民粹——共和党已全盘接受，但这套东西不再能引起美国大多数人的共鸣。
As the disastrous news for Trump and the GOP poured in, Trump zapped out a series of social media posts bitching about Fox News. And White House aides frantically reminded reporters that Trump was not on the ballot. (Roll the video of Trump: “I’m just asking everybody to pretend I’m on the ballot.”) These results signaled that Trump’s ugly politics of lies, deceit, division, bigotry, tribalism, hate, and demagoguery—which the GOP has fully embraced—no longer resonate with most of the United States.
他大声疾呼民主党人恨国、是共产党，想强迫儿童做变性手术、毁灭国家，这种叫嚣无法让大多数选民忽视“特朗普2.0”摆在面前的现实：物价高企、一场构想错误且执行拙劣的对伊朗自选战争、残酷的大规模驱逐运动、反复无常且无建树的经济政策、大规模且厚颜无耻的腐败、渐进式威权主义，以及大量他标志性的混乱。
His braying that Democrats are USA-hating commies who want to force gender-transition surgery on children and destroy the nation could not distract a majority of voters from the in-your-face realities of Trump 2.0: high prices, a misconceived and poorly executed war of choice in Iran, a cruel mass deportation crusade, erratic and unproductive economic policy, vast and brazen corruption, creeping authoritarianism, and loads of his signature chaos.
这次选举确立了一个清晰的模式。当特朗普作为候选人抨击统治阶级、许下宏大承诺（“黄金时代”！）时，选民会上当。但到了评估他在白宫的表现的时候，选民就会给差评。2016年和2024年，他作为总统候选人表现出色，扮演局外人、大老粗民族主义英雄的角色，声称能痛击体制、对抗精英、羞辱自由派、带来繁荣。这一套把戏——以骗子般的自信和马戏团叫卖者般的激情兜售——奏效了。
This election establishes a clear pattern. Voters can fall for Trump when he’s a candidate assailing the ruling class and making grand promises (a “golden age”!). But when the time comes to evaluate his performance in the White House, it’s thumbs down. In 2016 and 2024, he performed well as a presidential aspirant, playing the role of the outsider big-daddy nationalist hero who could sock it to the system, take on the elites, own the libs, and deliver prosperity. That shtick—sold with the conviction of a con man and the passion of a carnival barker—succeeded.
然而，身为总统的特朗普令人失望，他在白宫的作为引发了反弹。2018年，选民背弃了他，民主党赢得众议院。2020年——特朗普应对新冠疫情不力——选民将他赶下台，把权力交给乔·拜登，民主党保住众议院控制权并夺回参议院。
Yet Trump as president does not impress, and his White House actions spark backlashes. In 2018, voters turned on him, and the Democrats won the House. In 2020—as Trump mismanaged the Covid pandemic—voters booted him and handed the reins to Joe Biden, and the Democrats kept control of the House and picked up the Senate.
2026年中期选举延续了这一趋势。在经历了近两年的危机、专制、暴行、敛财、有利于富豪的政策以及各种怪诞行径之后，选民第三次否决了特朗普总统。这意味着特朗普从未从选民那里获得过正面的绩效评价。
The 2026 midterms follow suit. After nearly two years of crisis, autocracy, brutality, grift, plutocratic policies, and assorted bizarreness, voters have for the third time rejected a Trump presidency. That means Trump has never received a positive performance review from the electorate.
这些中期选举是“事后清算选举”。正如特朗普暴跌的支持率所显示的，选民一直在酝酿深深的“买后悔恨”。特朗普拖着身躯奔波全国，敦促公民投票，仿佛他自己就在选票上。选民真的这么做了。他带领共和党走向失败。即使他试图通过种族主义的选区划分来操纵局势，也无法挽救他和他的共和党狂热追随者。
These midterm contests are the morning-after election. As Trump’s plummeting approval ratings have shown, voters have been nurturing a profound case of buyer’s remorse. Trump hauled himself around the country urging citizens to vote as if he were on the ballot. And they did. He has led his Republican Party to failure. Even his effort to rig the playing field with racist gerrymandering could not save him and his GOP cultists.
诚然，总统往往会在中期选举中遭遇惨败——正如奥巴马总统在2010年称之为的“惨败”。但这一次，特朗普自己的决定和行动——伊朗战争、关税、建立秘密警察力量抓捕守法居民、摧毁联邦政府重要部门、毁坏国家公共卫生和医学研究体系、他那虚荣的运动企图将自己的名字冠以肯尼迪中心及其他实体名称，等等——推高了他的不受欢迎程度，远超历史趋势。
It’s true that presidents tend to suffer drubbings in midterm elections—or a “shellacking,” as President Barack Obama called it in 2010. But this time, Trump’s own decisions and actions—the Iran war, the tariffs, the establishment of a secret police force to round up law-abiding residents, the evisceration of vital swaths of the federal government, the decimation of the nation’s public health and medical research systems, his vainglorious campaign to attach his name to the Kennedy Center and other entities, and so on—drove his unpopularity far beyond the historic trend.
这是他自作自受，也害了他的党。这次选举是对移民与海关执法局（ICE）的响亮否决，对与加拿大发动贸易战的否决，对与弗拉基米尔·普京亲密往来的否决，对民主倒退的否决，对企图吞并格陵兰岛的否决，对该死的舞厅和他妈的拱门的否决。
He did this to himself and his party. This election was a loud no to ICE, to a trade war with Canada, to cozying up to Vladimir Putin, to democratic backsliding, to an attempt to swipe Greenland, to the damn ballroom and the freakin’ arch.
竞选最后几天出现了许多特朗普自毁形象的迹象。他在林肯纪念堂前的倒影池发表了一场极其古怪——即便以他的标准来看——的演讲，吹嘘自己所谓战胜了藻类。（有多少美国人关心这个？）在最后的竞选集会上——这些集会在红州举行，共和党候选人令人惊讶地显得脆弱——他继续宣称经济形势大好，谈论人们的屁股，喷吐恶毒的恐伊斯兰言论，经常胡言乱语并发出非语言的声音。他看起来状态不佳。
The last days of the campaign featured so many signs of Trump’s self-inflicted wounds. He delivered an utterly weird—even for him—speech at the Reflecting Pool in front of the Lincoln Memorial, in which he boasted of his purported victory over algae. (How many Americans cared about this?) In his final campaign rallies—held in red states where GOP candidates, remarkably, appeared vulnerable—he continued to proclaim the economy was great, talked about people’s asses, and spewed vicious Islamophobic comments, while often rambling wildly and emitting sounds that were not words. He did not seem well.
在整个竞选期间，特朗普几乎未采取任何措施回应其“让美国再次伟大”（MAGA）核心支持者以外选民的关切——除了提供一项虚假的贿赂，承诺向所有美国成年人发放5000美元支票。（赤字？什么赤字？）他对可负担性危机只字未提，甚至否认其存在——而民主党人明智地反复敲响可负担性这面鼓。他未涉及医疗和住房成本上涨问题。
Throughout the campaign, Trump took virtually no steps to address the concerns of any voters beyond his MAGA-heads—besides offering a phony bribe of $5,000 checks to all American adults. (Deficit? What deficit?) He had nothing to say about the affordability crisis, denying it even existed—while Democrats wisely banged the affordability drum over and over. He did not address the rising costs of health care or housing.
他辩称油价上涨是为他似乎无法结束的伊朗战争付出的微小代价。他兜售未来降低燃油价格的空头支票，并依靠仇恨，将民主党妖魔化为反美激进分子和怪胎。他说要清理华盛顿特区的“沼泽”。结果，他却炸毁堤坝，让腐败的污水流入宾夕法尼亚大道1600号。
He contended that higher gas prices were a small price to pay for the war in Iran that he appears unable to end. He peddled empty promises of lower fuel prices in the future and relied on hatred, demonizing Democrats as anti-American radicals and freaks. He said he would drain the swamp in Washington, DC. Instead, he blew up the levees and let the sewage of corruption flow into 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.
特朗普变成了一场恶毒的杂耍表演。这或许适用于候选人，但不适用于总统。
Trump became a vicious vaudeville act. That might work for a candidate, but not for a president.
副总统JD·万斯（JD Vance）及其“迷你版”也加入了这场仇恨狂欢。在为拉马斯瓦米（Ramaswamy）举行的集会上——他在整个中期选举周期中投放了最卑鄙的广告——万斯大声疾呼：“我看到一个报道……说有非法的索马里裔移民群体正在串通一致，涌向投票站淹没你们的选票……我们要让美国选举属于美国公民。通过投票给维韦克（Vivek）当州长来传递一个信息。”根本不存在这个报道。万斯纯粹是在兜售种族主义——或许这是他在为2028年竞选做预演。
Vice President JD Vance, his Mini-Me, joined in the hate-fest. At a rally for Ramaswamy, who ran the most despicable ad of the entire midterm cycle, Vance bellowed, “I saw a story…that there are illegal communities of illegal immigrant Somalis who are coordinating to flood the polls and drown out your vote…We want American elections to belong to American citizens. Send a message by voting for Vivek for governor.”There was no such story. Vance was simply hawking racism—perhaps in a preview of his 2028 campaign.
特朗普及其政党向美国选民倾倒了大量虚假信息和垃圾。而埃隆·马斯克（Elon Musk）花费（结果证明是浪费）了近5亿美元来撑腰共和党候选人、抨击民主党人，其中大部分钱投在得克萨斯州以助帕克斯顿（Paxton）一臂之力。
Trump and his party threw tons of disinformation and crap at American voters. And Elon Musk spent (wasted, it turns out) nearly half a billion dollars to prop up GOP candidates and assail Democrats, with much of that money deployed in Texas to help Paxton.
但即便有火星钱也救不了共和党免于特朗普式的崩盘。特朗普“复辟”不到两年，大多数美国人就渴望纠偏。他们想相信上一次大选从未发生过。但它确实发生了。造成了巨大破坏。
But not even Martian moolah could rescue the Republicans from the Trump implosion. After less than two years of the Trump restoration, most Americans crave a course correction. They’d like to believe the last election never happened. But it did. Much damage has been done.
走出深坑的第一步——停止挖掘——已经迈出。但烂摊子依然在，特朗普也还在，受了伤、愤怒、准备制造更大的混乱。宿醉后的清理工作不会随这次选举结束；它才刚刚开始。
The first step to getting out of the hole—stop digging—has been taken. But a mess remains, as does Trump, wounded, angry, and ready to wreak further havoc. The post-hangover cleanup does not end with this election; it only begins.