双方都认同这场动荡的中期选举的核心看点。特朗普总统希望选民“把我当成在选票上”。他的支持率为38%，民主党人欣然同意。
Both parties agreed on this tumultuous midterm election’s essential point. President Trump wanted voters to “pretend I’m on the ballot.”With his approval at 38%, Democrats happily agreed.
结果对共和党来说是灾难性的。他们几乎在所有地方都失利，包括过去难以想象会失败的地方。
The results were catastrophic for Republicans. They lost almost everywhere, including places where defeat was once unimaginable.
共和党在参议院的席位从53个降至不超过46个，在爱荷华州、堪萨斯州、俄亥俄州、南卡罗来纳州和得克萨斯州以及佐治亚州、北卡罗来纳州和缅因州失利。在众议院，民主党预计将拥有约258个席位，净增至少43个。许多处于所谓安全选区的共和党人仅以微弱优势险胜。
Republicans dropped from 53 in the Senate to no more than 46, with losses in Iowa, Kansas, Ohio, South Carolina and Texas as well as Georgia, North Carolina and Maine. In the House, Democrats are expected to have around 258 seats, a pickup of at least 43. Many Republicans in supposedly safe districts narrowly escaped defeat.
民主党至少赢得了五个州长席位，16年来首次占据多数。得克萨斯州共和党的全套全州候选人全部落败。民主党在州议会层面也至少净增500个席位，并夺回至少11个议院的控制权，包括佐治亚州、北卡罗来纳州和得克萨斯州的州众议院。他们将全面控制密歇根州、明尼苏达州、宾夕法尼亚州、威斯康星州以及可能的亚利桑那州的立法机构和州长职位。
Democrats gained at least five governorships, giving them a majority for the first time in 16 years. The entire statewide GOP ticket in Texas lost. Democrats also picked up at least 500 state legislative seats, and flipped at least 11 chambers, including the state Houses in Georgia, North Carolina and Texas. They will take full control of the legislatures and governorships of Michigan, Minnesota, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and possibly Arizona.
这场中期选举将被铭记数十年。共和党的失利规模巨大且影响深远。是什么解释了共和党惨败的程度？
This midterm will be remembered decades from now. Republican losses were massive and consequential. What explains the scope of the GOP defeat?
全国大环境恶劣。根据全国广播公司新闻部（NBC News）的出口民调，近一半选民表示生活成本是他们投票时“至关重要”的考量因素。另有40%的人称其为“主要”因素。近三分之二的人认为特朗普的政策让经济变得更糟，62%的人认为他的政策推高了物价。
The national environment was toxic. In the NBC News exit poll, nearly half of voters said the cost of living was a “crucial” consideration in their vote. Another 40% said it was a “major” factor. Nearly two-thirds said Mr. Trump’s policies made the economy worse while 62% said they raised prices.
有了这些数字，共和党注定要度过一个艰难的夜晚。但总统让事情变得更糟。近三分之二的选民认为他的优先事项错误。62%的人认为他将个人利益置于国家利益之上，而90%的人表示政府腐败是他们投票时“至关重要”或“主要”的考量因素。特朗普频繁举办集会，使自己成为关注焦点。
With numbers like that, Republicans were going to have a tough night. But the president made things much worse. Nearly 2 of 3 voters said he had the wrong priorities. Sixty-two percent said he put his personal interests above the country’s while 90% said government corruption was a “crucial” or “major” factor in their vote. Mr. Trump’s frequent rallies made him the center of attention.
他以狂野的指控、粗鄙的侮辱和夸张的吹嘘主导了媒体报道。他奇怪地聚焦于男性候选人的体格。没有纪律，没有面向未来的信息，没有实质性的攻击路线。只是他在每场集会上漫无边际地演讲一个多小时时脑子里蹦出什么就说什么。他称之为“编织”。实际上却是一团糟。
He dominated coverage with wild accusations, sloppy insults, and over-the-top bragging. He weirdly focused on the physiques of male candidates. No discipline, no forward-looking message, no substantive line of attack. Just whatever came to his mind as he rhetorically meandered for more than an hour at each rally. He called it “the weave.”It was really a mess.
特朗普先生还重蹈了拜登总统的覆辙，告诉选民不要相信自己的亲身经历。他声称选民正在见证“美国黄金时代”里“最成功的经济”。这激怒——甚至愤怒了——那些担心工资涨幅跟不上物价上涨的选民。
Mr. Trump also repeated President Joe Biden’s mistake of telling voters not to believe their own experience. They were witnessing, he claimed, “the most successful economy” in “a Golden Age of America.”This angered—even enraged—voters concerned their paychecks were growing slower than prices.
总统以为承诺如果投共和党票就给每个成年人5000美元能扭转选情。结果适得其反。大多数美国人把这视为一种薄薄的贿赂外衣，而且知道他兑现不了。
The president thought promising every adult $5,000 if they voted Republican would swing the election. It backfired. Most Americans took it as a thinly veiled bribe he knew he couldn’t deliver.
如果特朗普先生花更多时间履行总统职责，少当一些竞选总指挥，共和党的失利本会小一些。聚焦经济问题的有纪律的信息传递本可能改善他的声望，并提振更多共和党候选人的前景。
Republican losses would have been smaller if Mr. Trump spent more time being president and less as campaigner-in-chief. Disciplined messaging focused on economic concerns might have improved his standing and lifted more GOP hopefuls.
还有候选人素质问题。许多共和党候选人极其糟糕，尤其是特朗普先生亲自挑选的那些人。其中最著名的败者是得克萨斯州检察长肯·帕克斯顿。他的参议院竞选耗资近5亿美元，却毫无悬念。他以12个百分点的差距落败，成为自1988年以来首位在得克萨斯州联邦参议员选举中失利的共和党提名人。
Then there was candidate quality. Plenty of Republican candidates were awful, especially those handpicked by Mr. Trump. The most prominent of these losers was Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton. His Senate campaign cost nearly $500 million, and it wasn’t even close. He lost by 12 points and became the first Republican nominee to lose a Texas U.S. Senate seat since 1988.
特朗普先生在林肯纪念堂倒影池发表讲话，为中期选举画上句号。活动策划拙劣，显得格格不入。他聚焦于倒影池的翻修、他如何用更优质的草种改造白宫草坪，以及华盛顿的其他硬件升级。他拿出了图表和照片展示自己的“政绩”。难怪选民认为共和党不关心生活成本和经济。抛开结果不谈，总统从中期选举中得到了他想要的东西。
Mr. Trump ended the midterm with remarks at the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool. The event was poorly staged and strangely disconnected. He focused on the pool’s renovations, how he changed the White House lawn with a better quality of grass and other physical upgrades in Washington. He had charts and photos of his handiwork. No wonder voters believe the GOP is unconcerned about the cost of living and the economy. Apart from the outcome, the president got what he wanted from the midterms.
他是众人关注的焦点，在关键竞选中挑选了本党候选人。他逃离白宫，从挤满集会现场的忠实信徒们的追捧中获得慰藉。
He was the center of attention and chose his party’s nominees in key contests. He escaped the White House, drawing comfort from the adulation of true believers who packed his rallies.
这场中期选举失利是半个世纪以来最惨重的失败之一，让特朗普的总统任期受到重创。
This midterm defeat, one of the worst in a half-century, leaves the Trump presidency crippled.
未来两年内，确认保守派最高法院大法官人选的机会为零，也许未来六年也是如此。
There’s no chance of confirming a conservative Supreme Court justice in the next two years, and maybe the next six.
那些一直害怕与总统决裂的共和党人，现在会这样做，哪怕只是为了自保。总统会推卸责任，指责他人。
Republicans who have been afraid to break with the president will now do so, if only for self-preservation. The president will dodge responsibility and blame others.
他已经在X平台上宣称：“我没有出现在选票上，如果我出现了，我们本会以压倒性优势获胜。”这不是事实。
He’s already proclaimed on X, “I wasn’t on the Ballot and if I was, we would have won IN A LANDSLIDE.”
特朗普先生不能这么轻易地逃脱责任。他和他的政策以及候选人选择，把共和党烧成了灰烬。
Not true. Mr. Trump can’t escape blame so easily. He and his policies and candidate choices burned the Republican Party to the ground.
罗夫先生曾担任乔治·W·布什总统的高级顾问和副幕僚长，也是《威廉·麦金莱的胜利》（西蒙与舒斯特出版社，2015年）一书的作者。
Mr. Rove was senior adviser and deputy chief of staff for President George W. Bush and is author of “The Triumph of William McKinley” (Simon & Schuster, 2015).