在寻求避免被弹劾之际，国防部长皮特·赫格塞斯可能反而强化了批评者要求弹劾他的理由。
In seeking to fend off impeachment, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth may have strengthened his critics’ case for it.
周四，赫格塞斯在社交媒体上发布了一段情绪激昂的视频，誓言“我们坚守，我们战斗”。与此同时，外界日益猜测他可能成为共和党在中期选举中惨败的替罪羊，而这场选举深受不得人心的伊朗战争影响。
In an ardent social media video Thursday, Hegseth vowed, “We Stand, We Fight” amid rising speculation he may become a scapegoat for the Republican disaster in midterm elections shaped by the unpopular Iran war.
总统唐纳德·特朗普告诉记者，这位前福克斯新闻主播在五角大楼做得“非常出色”，尽管外界越来越预期，由共和党主导、已进入跛脚鸭阶段的众议院可能在下周投票弹劾这位部长。
President Donald Trump told reporters that the former Fox News anchor was doing a “fantastic job” at the Pentagon, even as expectations rose that the lame-duck GOP-led House of Representatives may vote to impeach the secretary next week.
除特朗普外，华盛顿很少有人愿意公开为赫格塞斯辩护，尤其是在一场选举惨败之后——这场失败显示出公众对这位国防部长热衷推动的战争的鄙夷。于是赫格塞斯亲自出面，发布了一段似乎只针对一位观众的视频：特朗普。
Apart from Trump, few in Washington are willing to publicly defend Hegseth, especially after an electoral rout which showed the public’s disdain for a war the defense secretary has enthusiastically waged. So Hegseth took matters into his own hands with a video seemingly aimed at a single viewer: Trump.
这位国防部长借用了特朗普对自己第一任期内两次遭弹劾的愤怒，显然将自己定位为总统眼中政治诡计的又一名受害者。“这全都是人身毁灭的政治。它对特朗普总统没能得逞，对我也同样不会得逞。这一点你们可以放心，”赫格塞斯说。
The defense secretary tapped into Trump’s anger at his own impeachments in his first term, apparently positioning himself as a fellow victim of what the president sees as political chicanery. “It’s all about the politics of personal destruction. Didn’t work against President Trump, and it won’t work with me. You can rest assured of that,” Hegseth said.
这段视频发布之际，政治局势动荡不安，华盛顿正被中期选举结果震动，而特朗普的核心圈子也因这场战争而分裂。此前，副总统JD·万斯在社交媒体上发布了另一条令人震惊的帖子，将共和党周二（的惨败）归咎于这场战争，并警告说，支持这场战争的人已让共和党失去参议院席位长达六年。
The video was released at a volatile political moment with Washington rocked by the midterms results and as Trump’s inner circle splits over the war. It followed a another stunning social media post in which Vice President JD Vance pinned the GOP debacle Tuesday on the war and warned that those who supported it had lost the Senate for six years.
政府的动荡凸显了一个更广泛的问题：如今已经清楚，无论战略和军事层面的得分如何，特朗普都输掉了伊朗战争的政治战线。这个伊斯兰共和国在美以最初的猛攻之后依然屹立不倒，给特朗普造成了巨大的政治代价，而这一代价通过飙升的汽油价格传导开来。
Turmoil in the administration underscored a wider point: It’s now clear that Trump lost the political front of the Iran war, whatever the strategic and military score. The Islamic Republic’s endurance after the initial US and Israeli onslaught inflicted a huge political cost on Trump, which was transmitted through soaring gasoline prices.
结果是，一位违背了避免外战承诺的总统，现在将在任期最后两年，被国会中庞大的民主党多数派所牵制。既然总统不会离任，政治逻辑表明，另一位高调人物可能会背锅。
The result is that a president who broke his promise to avoid foreign wars will now spend the last two years of his term penned in by bumper Democratic majorities in Congress. Since the president isn’t going anywhere, political logic suggests that another high-profile figure may carry the can.
但特朗普对记者表示，他并未考虑解雇赫格塞斯，并称赞他在今年早些时候美国突袭委内瑞拉、带走时任独裁者尼古拉斯·马杜罗的行动中表现出色，以及他在伊朗战争中的领导力。
But Trump told reporters that he was not considering firing Hegseth, praising him for the US raid in Venezuela to extract then-dictator Nicolás Maduro earlier this year and for his Iran war leadership.
尽管如此，赫格塞斯似乎越来越面临重蹈唐纳德·拉姆斯菲尔德覆辙的危险。20年前，选民在中期选举中给共和党造成惨重败绩，因为他们想惩罚另一位总统小布什发动另一场不得人心的战争——伊拉克战争，拉姆斯菲尔德因此被解职。
Still, Hegseth seems increasingly in danger of emulating Donald Rumsfeld, the defense secretary cut loose 20 years ago after voters dealt a huge midterm election defeat to Republicans because they wanted to punish another president, George W. Bush, for another unpopular war, in Iraq.
特朗普几乎无法承受五角大楼领导层的不确定性，因为他正面临一个关于伊朗战争下一步该怎么做的紧迫两难困境。在大选前，有越来越多的猜测认为，一旦选票统计完毕，他会升级冲突，试图迫使德黑兰谈判或投降。
Trump can barely afford uncertainty over the Pentagon’s leadership since he’s facing an urgent dilemma over what to do next in the Iran war. There was growing speculation before the election that he’d escalate the conflict once votes were counted to try to force Tehran to negotiate or capitulate.
现在这么做会让他陷入孤立，因为公众因战争而抛弃了他，且内阁内部的分歧正在扩大。但退缩将迫使特朗普承认一次尴尬的失败，因为德黑兰正在无视他渴望的美国胜利。
Doing so now would leave him isolated after the public abandoned him over the war and as schisms widen in his Cabinet. But backing away would force Trump to admit an embarrassing defeat, since Tehran is defying the US victory he craves.
作为一名电视老将，赫格塞斯知道该按老板的哪些按钮。他的视频充满火药味，装载着那种尖锐的文化攻击，正是这些攻击最初让特朗普对 him 青睐有加。他吹嘘把“怪人和觉醒派”赶出了军队。他还采用了特朗普2024年在宾夕法尼亚州巴特勒遇刺案的标志性意象，将自己呈现为特朗普支持者眼中其偶像所具备的那种强硬作风的化身。
Hegseth, a TV veteran, knows which buttons to push with his boss. His video was fiery, loaded with the kinds of lacerating cultural attacks that endeared him to Trump in the first place. He boasted about driving “the weird and the woke” out of the military. He also adopted the iconography of the assassination attempt that Trump survived in Butler, Pennsylvania, in 2024, presenting himself as the epitome of the toughness the president’s supporters perceive in their idol.
“他实实在在为这个国家挡了一颗子弹，”赫格塞斯说，“他挥舞拳头说‘战斗，战斗，战斗’，我们也会这样做。”
“He literally took a bullet for this nation,” Hegseth said. “He shook his fist and said ‘fight, fight, fight,’ and so will we.”
赫格塞斯的演讲伴随着助手们在社交媒体上的一连串支持性帖子，这越来越像是一场旨在保住他职位的精心策划的行动。向特朗普和MAGA运动传递的信息很明确——如果赫格塞斯被推出去当替罪羊，那将意味着总统的巨大失败。一名政府高级官员周四告诉CNN的 Haley Britzky：“五角大楼和白宫今晚已经把立场表达得再清楚不过了。他们站出来全力支持赫格塞斯，这应该能告诉你一切你需要知道的事情。”
Hegseth’s speech was accompanied by a blitz of supportive social media posts by aides in what increasingly looks like an orchestrated campaign to save his job. The message to Trump and the MAGA movement is clear — if Hegseth walks the plank, it will mean an enormous defeat for the president. A senior administration official told CNN’s Haley Britzky on Thursday that “the Pentagon and White House made their positions crystal clear tonight. They are coming out swinging in support of Hegseth and that should tell you everything you need to know.”
这并非MAGA运动第一次为赫格塞斯动员起来。去年他的确认提名陷入严重困境时，一场猛烈的反击成功挽救了他的提名。然而，赫格塞斯最新的自我辩护可能误判了政治时机。
It is not the first time the MAGA movement has mobilized for Hegseth. An aggressive pushback when his confirmation push was in deep trouble last year succeeded in saving his nomination. Yet Hegseth’s latest self-defense may have misjudged the political moment.
他在五角大楼的台阶上发表了一番激昂的演讲，身后是一块写着“战争部”的标牌——这是一个刺眼的选择，因为就在两天前，数百万美国人投票否决了国家最新的对外纠缠。这种夸夸其谈在早些时候、在特朗普权力的巅峰时期或许奏效。如今看来却显得不合时宜。
He delivered his amped-up speech from the Pentagon steps, with a sign reading “Department of War” over his shoulder — a jarring choice two days after millions of Americans voted to repudiate the nation’s latest foreign entanglement. Such bombast may have worked earlier, at the apex of Trump’s power. Now it seems tin-eared.
在万斯与特朗普决裂之后，这也暗示了一种领导层的真空，尤其是因为这位三军统帅在大选后花了数小时投入他个人的虚荣项目，包括白宫舞厅。周四，特朗普签署了一项公告，将内阁会议室和椭圆形办公室指定为国家地标，显然是为了保护他那些镀金翻新。
After Vance’s break with Trump, it also hints at a leadership vacuum, especially since the commander in chief has spent hours following the election on his personal vanity projects, including the White House ballroom. On Thursday, Trump signed a proclamation designating the Cabinet Room and the Oval Office as national landmarks in an apparent effort to protect his gold-soaked redecorations.
赫格塞斯困境的严重程度将在下周变得更加明朗。众议员托马斯·马西——一位在初选中输给总统支持的挑战者的反特朗普共和党人——正誓言要提出弹劾条款。
The depth of Hegseth’s predicament will become clearer next week. Rep. Thomas Massie, an anti-Trump Republican who lost a primary to a challenger backed by the president, is vowing to bring up articles of impeachment.
共和党人对赫格塞思在国会山的批评，可能在愤怒的共和党议员于选举惨败后返回华盛顿之际达到高潮。对于那些落败的议员，或者如今面临少数党生涯的幸存者来说，他们还有什么动力去为一个发动了葬送他们职业生涯的战争的设计者辩护呢？
Republican criticism of Hegseth on Capitol Hill may reach a crescendo when angry GOP lawmakers return to Washington after the electoral rout. What incentive will there be for defeated representatives or survivors who now face life in the minority to stand up for the architect of a war that doomed their careers?
目前尚无迹象表明，参议院弹劾审判中会有三分之二多数判定赫格塞思有罪并将其免职。但甚至在本周选举之前，赫格塞思在听证会上傲慢的表现就已让他在国会山鲜有朋友。议员们还指责他隐瞒伊朗战争战略的细节以及伊朗对中东美军基地袭击的情况。众议院若以广泛多数票通过弹劾，可能会使他的职位在政治上难以为继。
There is no sign yet that there would be a two-thirds majority to convict Hegseth in an impeachment trial in the Senate and remove him from office. But even before this week’s elections, Hegseth’s brash appearances at hearings made him few friends on Capitol Hill. Lawmakers also accuse him of withholding details of Iran war strategy and Iranian attacks on US bases in the Middle East. A wide majority vote for impeachment in the House may make his position politically untenable.
众议院民主党少数党领袖哈基姆·杰弗里斯周四在社交媒体上问道：“为什么皮特·赫格塞思还在任？”上周，这还很容易被归为党派攻击。但杰弗里斯现在是以未来众议院议长的身份发言。从明年1月开始的政府拨款请求将需要经过民主党控制的国会，而五角大楼将需要与新多数党搞好关系。
Democratic House Minority leader Hakeem Jeffries on Thursday asked on social media, “Why is Pete Hegseth still around?”Last week, this would have been easy to put down to partisan sniping. But Jeffries now speaks as a future speaker of the House. Administration funding requests from next January will run through a Democratic Congress, and the Pentagon will need to play nice with the new majority party.
甚至在那之前，赫格塞思就可能成为政府1.5万亿美元国防预算获得通过的障碍。
Even before then, Hegseth may be an impediment to the passage of the administration’s $1.5 trillion defense budget.
即将卸任的北卡罗来纳州共和党参议员汤姆·蒂利斯周三对CNN的凯特兰·柯林斯表示：“我认为他在美国参议院或国会投入得还不够，甚至连一项拨款请求都难以完成。”
“I don’t think he has invested enough in the US Senate or Congress to even get a funding request done,” outgoing North Carolina Republican Sen. Thom Tillis told CNN’s Kaitlan Collins on Wednesday.
蒂利斯说：“这已经超出了伊朗战争的范畴；这关乎设法提供国防部推进所需的资金流。”他还说，关键委员会的主席和首席议员认为这位国防部长疏于沟通。“赫格塞思根本不是这份工作的合适人选，”他说。
“This is beyond the Iran war; this about trying to provide the funding stream that the DOD needs to move forward,” Tillis said, adding that chairs and ranking members of key committees view the defense secretary as disengaged. “Hegseth is just not the right guy for the job,” he said.
民主党人似乎将摇摇欲坠的赫格塞思视为一个机会，甚至在他们于新一年取得多数席位之前就能打击特朗普。
Democrats seem to view the wobbling Hegseth as a chance to wound Trump even before they claim their majorities in the new year.
亚利桑那州参议员、民主党人鲁本·加列戈周四在接受CNN主播杰克·塔珀采访时表示，赫格塞斯的视频进一步削弱了他的权威。“你现在正在打仗，却表现得好像还在福克斯新闻台上一样，”他说。
Democratic Sen. Ruben Gallego told CNN’s Jake Tapper on Thursday that Hegseth’s video further undermined his authority. “You’re conducting a war right now, and then you’re reacting as if you’re on Fox News,” he said.
这位亚利桑那州参议员补充道：“这太荒谬了。……如果他想为自己不该被弹劾找个充分理由，他实际上只是加倍下注，直接招来了弹劾。”
The Arizona senator added: “It’s ridiculous. … If he wanted to make a good argument for him not to be impeached, he literally just doubled down and asked for an impeachment.”