共和党人清楚，总统的愚蠢和过度行为让他们输掉了选举。但这并不意味着他们准备挑战他。上周二投票结束后不久，共和党在中期选举中惨败的规模尚在显现，唐纳德·特朗普却一度出人意料地摆出和解姿态。他宣称自己“绝对”愿意接受结果，期待与民主党人合作，还说驱逐政策可能“过于严厉”。
Republicans know that the president’s folly and excesses cost them the elections. That doesn’t mean they’re ready to challenge him Shortly after polls closed last Tuesday, with the scale of the Republican trouncing in the midterms still becoming apparent, Donald Trump briefly adopted an oddly conciliatory tone. He declared that he was “absolutely” willing to accept the results, would look forward to working with Democrats and that deportation policies might have been “too tough”.
这种姿态注定不会持久。他很快便对选举的合法性提出质疑。周五，他撤换了白宫幕僚长苏西·怀尔斯，由她的副手斯蒂芬·米勒接任。米勒是白人民族主义者，用很可能成为下一任众议院议长的哈基姆·杰弗里斯的话说，是“彻头彻尾的种族主义者”。怀尔斯忠实执行了总统的决定，但被视为多少能起到安抚作用、甚至约束作用的人物，这或许有助于解释她为何离职。
It was never going to last. He soon cast doubt on the elections’ legitimacy. On Friday, he replaced his chief of staff, Susie Wiles, with her deputy, Stephen Miller – a white nationalist, or “stone-cold racist”, in the words of Hakeem Jeffries, likely to be the next House speaker. Ms Wiles executed the president’s decisions faithfully, but was seen as a somewhat calming if not restraining influence, which may help explain her departure.