在中期选举前一天，总统唐纳德·特朗普站在倒影池（Reflect Pool）旁坚称，他的讲话与投票毫无关系。而在选举后一天，他向记者通报了白宫宴会厅基地的建设进展。
The day before the midterm elections, President Donald Trump stood at the Reflecting Pool and insisted his remarks had nothing to do with the vote. The day after, he gave reporters a construction update from the site of his White House ballroom.
在此期间，他的政党遭遇了一位共和党人所称的近乎“灭绝级”的事件。民主党甚至在历史上的保守派州得克萨斯州、南卡罗来纳州和堪萨斯州赢得了参议院选举。一名白宫官员将选举结果描述为“最糟糕的情况”。尽管特朗普亲自挑选了许多候选人，但他仍然坚信问题在于候选人太差。在白宫内部，一些人认为问题更贴近自身。
In between, his party suffered what one Republican called a near “extinction-level” event. Democrats won Senate races even in historically conservative Texas, South Carolina and Kansas. One White House official described the outcome as “the worst-case scenario.”Trump remains convinced the problem was bad candidates, even though he handpicked many of them. Inside the White House, some see the problem closer to home.
现任和前任官员在匿名接受坦率采访时告诉MS NOW，对于总统不愿承担责任，工作人员虽然并不感到意外，但感到极为恼火。他们同样感到沮丧的是，哪怕在其政党走向惨败之际，他的注意力依然放在建筑项目上。
Current and former officials, granted anonymity to speak candidly, told MS NOW that staffers are exasperated, though not surprised, that the president won’t accept responsibility. They are also frustrated that even as his party headed into a rout, his attention was on his construction projects.
在特朗普的总统任期还剩两年之际，一些人正在寻找退路，他的盟友则对白宫艰难留住人手、招募新人以及让总统专注于其议程感到担忧。
With two years left in Trump’s term, some are looking for the exits, and his allies worry about a White House that is struggling to keep its people, recruit new ones and keep the president focused on his agenda.
“按照目前的发展轨迹，这件事绝无挽救的可能，”一名与现任员工保持联系的前白宫官员在谈到特朗普的“让美国再次伟大”（MAGA）议程时表示。“总统这两年的重点是什么？可能是在搞装修。”倒影池和宴会厅这两个耗资均超过6亿美元的项目，一直是白宫各地工作人员沮丧甚至有时感到困惑的特定来源。
“In this current trajectory, there’s no shot this is salvageable,” one former White House official, who remains in touch with current staff, said of Trump’s MAGA agenda. “What is the president’s focus these last two years? It’s probably renovations.”The Reflecting Pool and ballroom projects, both costing more than $600 million, have been a particular source of frustration, and at times confusion, for staff across the White House.
“总统的注意力到处都是，”另一位与该届政府保持密切联系的前白宫官员说。“有多少人在为挑选哪个项目使用什么大理石而准备简报？”
“The president’s attention is all over the place,” said another former White House official who remains close to the administration. “How many people are preparing briefs on what marble to pick for X project?”
同一位前官员表示，士气低落，“白宫的光鲜亮丽正在逐渐褪色”。
The same former official said morale is low and that the “glitz and glam of the White House is wearing off.”
“现在想要离开的愿望已经无法抑制，”这位前官员说。“一些人正在打电话试图跳船。”这位前官员补充说，另有一些人则被建议寻求法律顾问作为“预防措施”。
“There is no holding back on the desire to leave now,” the former official said. “Some are making calls to try and jump ship.”Others, the official added, are being advised to seek legal counsel as a “precaution.”
其中一位特朗普政府的前官员用一个词总结了当时的氛围：“痛苦”。“每个人都要开始内讧了，”这位前官员基于对内部环境的了解说道。截至发稿时，白宫未回应置评请求。
One of the former Trump administration officials summed up the atmosphere in one word: “pain.”“Everybody’s gonna start infighting,” the former official said, based on their knowledge of the internal environment. The White House did not respond to a request for comment at time of publication.
去年特朗普重返白宫时，其“让美国再次伟大”的盟友已经在《2025计划》中制定了一份蓝图。他们在内阁和政府中安插了忠诚人士，这些人自他2021年离开华盛顿以来，在其政治卷土重来的过程中大体上一直坚定追随他。
When Trump returned to the White House last year, his MAGA allies had already crafted a blueprint in Project 2025. They filled the Cabinet and the administration with loyalists who had largely stuck by him through his political comeback after he left Washington in 2021.
但在经历了一连串的离职之后，几位接近特朗普运作团队的人现在开始质疑，在这个政府最后的两年里继续任职是否值得。“这将是一场噩梦，”另一位接近白宫运作的人士说。
But after a flurry of departures, several people close to Trump’s operation now question whether it’s worth serving in the administration for its final two years. “It’s going to be hell,” said another person close to the White House operation.
“没有人会去那里工作——你必须本身就很富有，”该人士在谈到白宫员工薪酬相对于私营部门的情况时说。该人士指出，要想说服顶级招聘对象放弃高薪工作，转而加入政府中那些动荡且短期的岗位，是极其困难的。
“No one is going to work there — you have to be independently wealthy,” the person said, referring to the salaries of White House staffers relative to the private sector. That person pointed to the difficulty of persuading top recruits to leave lucrative jobs for volatile, short-term posts in the administration.
“许多人认为他什么也做不了。他成了一只跛脚鸭，”其中一位前官员说。
“A lot of people think he’s not going to be able to do anything. He’s a lame duck,” said one of the former officials.
不过，这位前官员表示，民主党接管国会与盟友不愿加入的关系不大：“总统在多数这类事情上都在使用行政权力，特别是在涉及外交政策以及他正在做的所有与国会关系甚微的事情时。”自2022年底发起他的第三次总统竞选以来，特朗普一直依靠一个规模惊人的小圈子信任运作人员来掌管其政治和白宫运作。接近白宫运作的人士表示，没有一个工作人员敢于向特朗普直言让他专注于其政策目标，因为他们觉得自己的声音不会被听取。
That former official said, though, that the Democratic takeover of Congress has less to do with allies’ reluctance to join: “The president is using executive authority on most of these things, especially when it comes to foreign policy and all of these things he’s doing that has very little to do with Congress.”Since launching his third presidential campaign in late 2022, Trump has relied on a strikingly small circle of trusted operatives to run his political and White House operations. The person close to the White House operation said no one on staff speaks frankly to Trump about staying focused on his policy goals, because they feel they won’t be heard.
周三在宴会厅施工现场，特朗普表现出一种低调、几乎冷漠的基调。在近20分钟的讲话中，他从未提及共和党人前一天晚上面临的失利。
At the ballroom site Wednesday, Trump struck a subdued, almost indifferent tone. In nearly 20 minutes of remarks, he never mentioned the losses Republicans had suffered the night before.
当被问及特朗普用建筑项目的言论而非选民最关心的议题来为周二的选举作结这一视觉效果时，一名现任白宫官员暗示，总统看待事物的角度有所不同。
Asked about the optics of Trump bookending Tuesday’s election with construction-project remarks rather than the issues voters cared most about, a current White House official suggested the president sees things differently.
“他的想法不是那样的，他看待这件事的方式与我们其他人不一样，”这位现任白宫官员说。该官员表示，特朗普并不像过去那样思考民调和选民支持率。
“That’s not how he thinks, he doesn’t see that the same way the rest of us do,” the current White House official said. Trump isn’t thinking about polling and voter approval in the way he may previously had, the official said.
一位长期担任特朗普顾问的人士表示，这一时刻标志着他回到了“他的快乐之地”，并指出建筑是特朗普的“真正的兴趣所在”。该顾问称，特朗普对中期选举的愤怒可能没有人们想象的那么大。该顾问指出了特朗普在个人和职业生涯中经历过的许多失败和失望。
One longtime Trump adviser said the moment marked a return to “his happy place,” noting that construction is Trump’s “true interest.”Trump is probably less angry about the midterms than people think, the adviser said. The adviser pointed to the many losses and disappointments Trump has weathered before, personally and professionally.
“他的摩天大楼刚刚被砍掉了30%，而他会想方设法重建，”该顾问说。
“His skyscraper just got cut down by 30%, and he is gonna find a way to rebuild,” the adviser said.