既然选民已在州和联邦两级对共和党进行了应有的否决——很大程度上是因为他们对唐纳德·特朗普总统任期内肆无忌惮的无法无天负有共谋责任——那么国会调查势必会随之而来。虽然我从不押注民主党不会浪费良机，但要求对特朗普政府官方和非官方成员涉嫌犯下的无数罪行追责，其潜在收益远超那种“调查有将特朗普塑造成烈士之虞”的恐惧心理。从何查起？是蒙面移民执法人员在明尼阿波利斯大白天当众枪杀蕾妮·古德和亚历克斯·普雷蒂一案——至今仍未接受任何独立调查？
Now that Republicans have been appropriately repudiated by voters at both the state and federal levels — in large part for their complicity in the brazen lawlessness of the presidency of Donald Trump — congressional investigations are certain to follow. Although I would never bet against Democrats’ ability to squander an opportunity, the upside to demanding accountability for the myriad suspected crimes committed by official and unofficial members of the Trump administration far outweighs whatever motivates the fear that investigations run the risk of “making a martyr of Trump.”Where to begin? The brazen, in-broad-daylight killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis by masked immigration agents — which still haven’t been subject to any independent investigation?
还是特朗普女婿贾里德·库什纳充当首席外交官——同时斡旋战争、军购交易和度假村建设——却未经参议院确认、不受任何监督，并据称从外国政府捞取数十亿美元？抑或特朗普及其儿子们在过去两年暴富数十亿美元，主要来自加密货币交易？
Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner acting as a top diplomat — negotiating wars, arms deals and resort-building all at once — despite not having been confirmed by the Senate or being subject to any oversight, and allegedly pocketing billions from foreign governments? Or Trump and his sons becoming billions richer over the past two years, largely from crypto deals?
又或者是在加勒比海地区，以他们属于战斗人员这一站不住脚且未经证实的借口为由，在毫无正当程序的情况下枪杀疑似贩毒者？
How about the due process-free killings of suspected drug smugglers in the Caribbean, under the dubious and unproven pretext that they are war combatants?
对于任何希望看到腐败、暴力且权势滔天者受到与我们这些小老百姓同等法律约束的人来说，这简直是案源滚滚。
It’s an embarrassment of riches for anyone who would like to see the corrupt, violent and powerful be subject to the same laws as the rest of us little people.
但若不调查美国最富有的“企业福利女王”埃隆·马斯克及其短命的政府效率部所造成的惨状，就无法彻查特朗普政府的非法勾连。除唐纳德·特朗普本人外，无人比他更应对那些功能虽不惹眼却至关重要的政府机构被愤世嫉俗且无能地摧毁负责。
But you can’t investigate the Trump administration’s illicit entanglements without looking into the carnage wreaked by America’s wealthiest corporate welfare queen, Elon Musk, and his briefly existing Department of Government Efficiency. No single person not named Donald Trump is as responsible for the cynical and incompetent destruction of government agencies with unsexy yet crucially important functions.
特斯拉与SpaceX掌门人——因其癫狂发作和公开的白人民族主义政治倾向而臭名昭著——是支持特朗普2024年竞选的政治行动委员会（PAC）最大捐赠者，捐款超过2.5亿美元。自那以后，他据报的净资产已翻了一倍多。
The Tesla-X-SpaceX honcho — notorious for his deranged tantrums and overtly white nationalist political leanings — was the biggest donor to PACs supporting Trump’s 2024 campaign, contributing more than $250 million. Since then, his reported net worth has more than doubled.
2026年，马斯克在共和党候选人身上花费了近5亿美元。民主党不仅大获全胜，而且包括得克萨斯州当选参议员詹姆斯·塔拉里科在内的几位候选人，是在与马斯克本人对抗中获胜的。如今，崇拜亿万富翁的评论阶层正试图树立一个稻草人叙事：即马斯克的政治支出是任何人调查他在“政府效率部”（DOGE）横行霸道期间的重重利益冲突，或其行为犯罪性的唯一理由。
In 2026, Musk spent almost half a billion on Republican candidates. Not only did Democrats romp to victory anyway, but several, like Sen.-elect James Talarico of Texas, did so while running against Musk himself. Now the billionaire-worshipping pundit class is trying to set up a straw man narrative: that Musk’s political spending is the only reason anyone would investigate his myriad conflicts of interest during DOGE’s rampage, or the criminality of its actions.
《华盛顿邮报》专栏作家梅根·麦卡德尔在中期选举次日在X上写道：“虽然我认为调查腐败是必要的，但仅因是特朗普盟友就对特朗普盟友进行全方位报复，将会具有腐蚀性且在政治上不明智。”
Washington Post columnist Megan McArdle wrote on X the day after the midterms: “While I think investigations of corruption are in order, full-throated vengeance against Trump allies for being Trump allies would be corrosive and politically unwise.”
她补充道：“调查‘政府效率部’是否凡事都按规矩办事，这很公平。但因马斯克在选举中支持特朗普而惩罚他，这是不公平的，那是他的第一修正案权利。”特朗普已经表示，自大选以来开始发送监督信函的民主党人应被监禁，并呼应了麦卡德尔的观点，称人们受到针对“仅仅因为他们碰巧是共和党人，或共和党支持者”。如今，白宫和司法部正预先向呼吁调查的民主党人发送威胁信函。
“Fair to look into whether DOGE dotted all the i’s and crossed the t’s,” she added. “Not fair to punish Elon Musk for his support of Trump in elections, which is his first amendment right.”Trump has already said that Democrats who have started sending oversight letters since the election should be imprisoned, and echoed McArdle’s contention that people are being targeted “just because they happen to be Republicans, or Republican supporters.”And now the White House and the Justice Department are preemptively sending threatening letters to Democrats who have called for investigations.
这是一项相当严重的指控，但似乎并没有任何有力证据支持。据我所知，没有任何有影响力的人士在任何地方提出过“对特朗普盟友进行报复，只因他们是特朗普盟友”，也没有人主张马斯克因在落选候选人身上花费五亿美元而触犯法律。（不过，他最近确实就2024年向选民非法发放现金的多起诉讼达成了和解。）有许多具体引述的理由值得调查，包括涉嫌权钱交易腐败，以及马斯克对美军似乎施加了不当影响。
It’s quite the accusation, though it doesn’t appear to be backed by any meaningful evidence. No one of note, anywhere that I’ve seen, has suggested “vengeance against Trump allies for being Trump allies” or argued that Musk broke laws by spending half a billion on losing candidates. (He did recently settle several lawsuits over his illegal cash giveaways to voters in 2024, though.) There are many specifically cited reasons to investigate, including alleged pay-to-play corruption and Musk’s apparent undue influence over the U.S. military.
而马斯克“政府效率部”（DOGE）的主要问题在于，该机构完全没有遵循任何正规程序。这才是核心所在。
And the primary issue with Musk’s DOGE is that the agency didn’t dot any i’s or cross any t’s at all. That’s the whole point.
DOGE主要由年轻男性、马斯克的超级粉丝组成，他们非法洗劫了政府机构。他们针对含有“偏见”“女性”“移民”等禁用词的职位、拨款和合同发起猎巫行动。他们掏空了许多机构，而这些机构承担着维持现代社会运转至关重要却枯燥乏味的工作——如预防森林火灾、核扩散、飞机失事和恐怖主义。
DOGE’s mostly young and male Musk superfans ransacked the government illegally. They launched a witch hunt against jobs, grants and contracts with prohibited words like “bias,” “woman” and “immigration.”They gutted numerous agencies that do the boring but crucially important work of keeping modern society humming along — like preventing forest fires, nuclear proliferation, airplane crashes and terrorism.
他们做这一切毫无透明度可言。而且他们一分钱也没省下。事实上，即使他们利用人工智能寻找摧毁目标，他们很可能让我们损失了数十亿美元，留下的烂摊子将需要数十年才能修复。（马斯克在2025年2月否认了不当行为指控，但此后采取了更具对抗性的立场，显然在X上发帖威胁民主党人：“靠剑生者，靠剑死者。那些挑起事端找我麻烦的人应该明白，我会查出到底是谁在背后操纵，并找上他们，而不仅仅是他们的傀儡……。”）
They did all this with no transparency. And they didn’t save a dime. In fact, even as they used artificial intelligence to find targets to destroy, they probably cost us billions, and left a mess in their wake that will take decades to repair. (Musk denied allegations of impropriety in February 2025, but has since taken a more combative stance by apparently threatening Democrats in a X post: “Live by the sword, die by the sword. Those who pick fights with me should understand that I will find out who is really pulling the strings and come for them, not just their puppets ….”)
DOGE通过扼杀美国国际开发署摧毁了美国的软实力，导致数万人死亡（按最保守估计），并留下了一个权力真空，由军阀和亲中国派系填补。随后，DOGE的追随者窃取了我们的社会保障数据。尽管他们始终在使用未经授权的通信方式，但他们临走前还特意销毁了最后的文件。
DOGE destroyed America’s soft power by killing the U.S. Agency for International Development, leading to the deaths of tens of thousands (using the most conservative estimates) and leaving a power vacuum filled by warlords and factions loyal to China. Then DOGE’s acolytes stole our Social Security data. And though they had been using unauthorized methods of communication the entire time, they made sure to burn the last documents on their way out the door.
要求对这些前所未有的滥用未授权权力的行为——包括马斯克的行为——进行刑事调查，是温和的立场。
Demanding criminal investigations of these unprecedented abuses of unauthorized power — including of Musk’s — is the moderate position.
是的，有提议的立法将限制像马斯克这样的行为人——这位获得数十亿美元政府合同的接受者——向授予他这些合同的民选官员进行无限额捐款。但我找不到任何一位民选官员或知名评论员主张马斯克的支出在刑事层面涉嫌违法。坦率地说，这是一个不严肃的论点，不值得理会片刻。
Yes, there is proposed legislation that would restrict actors like Musk, the recipient of billions of dollars in government contracts, from making limitless contributions to the elected officials who gave him those contracts. But I couldn’t find a single instance of an elected official or a prominent commentator arguing that Musk’s spending is criminally suspect. It is, frankly, an unserious argument that shouldn’t be humored for a moment.
弗吉尼亚州民主党众议员詹姆斯·沃金肖在选举前一天发帖称：“埃隆·马斯克在舞台上挥舞电锐并大笑，同时解雇公职人员、摧毁美国民众赖以生存的服务。随后他向美国民众撒谎，谎报节省的金额。他必须在宣誓作证时对此作出交代。”这不是“法律战”，这只是对发生了什么以及应该发生什么的近乎平常的陈述。
Rep. James Walkinshaw, D-Va., posted the day before the elections, “Elon Musk waved a chainsaw on stage and laughed while he fired public servants and gutted the services Americans rely on. Then he lied to the American people about the savings. He must answer for it under oath.”That’s not “lawfare,” that’s an almost banal observation about what happened and what should happen.
无视那位绝望、日薄西山的总统的抱怨和威胁。也别理会那些寡头追随者，他们暗示宪法不该适用于历史上最富有的人。调查埃隆·马斯克，以及每一个在为“政府效率部”干脏活时留下指纹的窃贼和破坏者。
Ignore the desperate, fading president’s complaints and threats. And pay no mind the oligarch groupies who imply that the Constitution shouldn’t apply to the richest people in history. Investigate Elon Musk and every thieving vandal who left behind fingerprints while doing DOGE’s dirty work.