一位总统在现实中逐渐沦为“跛脚鸭”是什么样子？看看选举之夜唐纳德·特朗普的“真实社交”账号就知道了。当时他一边为白宫订购芝士蛋糕工厂的美食，一边呈现出一个正在接受自己在世界上地位下降的人的形象。
What does it look like for a president to morph into a lame duck in real time? Look no further than Donald Trump’s Truth Social account on election night, where, in the midst of ordering Cheesecake Factory delicacies for the White House, the portrait of a man coming to terms with his diminished standing in the world emerges.
特朗普的选举之夜之旅始于对福克斯新闻的愤怒，他指责该网络导致共和党在全国范围内遭遇惨重失利。“难怪福克斯新闻的收视率正在暴跌，而且还会进一步大幅下滑，”他写道。“它们的收视率一路走低，不是因为我的原因，而是因为它们反对我！这种情况以前发生过一次，福克斯几乎垮掉。现在又发生了！”
Trump began his election night journey fuming at Fox News, blaming the network for the steep Republican losses reverberating around the country. “No wonder FoxNews Ratings are collapsing, and they’re going to go down a lot further,” he wrote. “They’re way down, not because of me, but because they are AGAINST me! This happened once before, and Fox almost collapsed. It’s happening again!”
当晚晚些时候，特朗普发布了一张印有“否决”字样的MAGA帽子图片后，声称“福克斯新闻应对这些失利负责，因为它不断且一贯地让民主党反对派上镜，甚至更糟。”总统还试图——但难以令人信服地——与自己那些极为个人化、反复多次的呼吁划清界限，他曾敦促选民今年把票投给他本人，以此作为激励他们出门投票给共和党的手段。“我并不在选票上，如果我在，我们会以压倒性优势获胜！”特朗普写道。
Later in the night, after posting an image of a MAGA hat emblazoned with “VETO,” Trump claimed that “Fox News bears responsibility for these losses by constantly and consistently putting on the Dumocrat opposition, and worse.”The president also attempted, unconvincingly, to distance himself from his very personal, much-repeated exhortations to voters to that he was on the ballot this year as an incentive to get out and vote Republican. “I wasn’t on the Ballot and if I was, we would have won IN A LANDSLIDE!”Trump wrote.
然而，在愤怒的发帖之外，特朗普表现出了不寻常的意愿，接受共和党表现有多糟糕这一现实。事实上，民主党周二取得的历史性胜利——包括在长期以来被认为民主党不可能获胜的地区——如此压倒性，以至于特朗普告诉《华盛顿邮报》，他将以跛脚鸭总统的新身份与民主党合作。同一种不合常态的妥协与承认现实的混合态度，又出现在与《纽约时报》的一次意外通话中，特朗普重复了类似的观点——尽管在两次通话中，特朗普都特意强调了他的否决权。
Away from the furious posting, however, Trump appeared uncharacteristically willing to accept the reality of just how badly the GOP had performed. In fact, the Democratic Party’s historic wins on Tuesday—including in areas where a Democratic victory had long been considered unimaginable—were so resounding that Trump told the that he would work with Democrats in his new capacity as a lame-duck president. That same off-brand mix of resignation and acknowledgment of reality appeared again in a surprise call with where Trump repeated similar sentiments—though in both conversations Trump made a point of underscoring his veto power.
随着夜晚结束，特朗普甚至设法与福克斯新闻和解。或者说至少和解到足以上该网络向民主党人表示祝贺的程度。
As the evening came to a close, Trump even managed to make amends with Fox News. Or at least enough to appear on the network to congratulate Democrats.
但不要因此认为特朗普没有崩溃。据报道，私下里，总统猛烈抨击“懒惰”的共和党人和“名存实亡的共和党人”，尽管中期选举被广泛视为对其领导力的公投。请继续关注，看共和党对总统的愤怒是否会演变成更公开、更实质性的行动。
But don’t take any of that to mean Trump isn’t melting down. Privately, the president reportedly lashed out at “lazy” Republicans and RINOs, even though the midterms were widely viewed as a referendum on his leadership. Stay tuned to see if the GOP’s anger with the president turns into something more public and substantive.