2026-10-20T22:21:08.454Z / 美国有线电视新闻网（CNN）
唐纳德·特朗普总统仍有两周时间来挽救共和党在国会的多数席位，打破外界对其将在中期选举中遭遇惨败的预期。但在他身边，助手和盟友们已经开始为万一他失败后的局面做准备。
多名政府官员表示，他们越来越确信，如果共和党遭遇惨重失利，将引发政府内部大规模人事震荡——特朗普会借机寻找助手归咎责任，同时数十名官员也在考虑在这个最低谷时期弃守跛脚鸭总统任期。
几位政府官员、顾问和亲密盟友透露，这种焦虑已经让曾以高度团结为荣的白宫再度成为特朗普阵营内讧和泄密的核心枢纽，在11月大选前的关键最后几天里，权力争夺和先发制人的指责交织在一起，局面十分恶劣。
“这比现代白宫历史上任何时期都要残酷，”一名特朗普盟友说道，“在这里你谁都信不过。”
就在过去两周内，政府内部以及整个特朗普圈子里的激烈角力多次公开化，加剧了不信任氛围，也进一步激化了特朗普对身边顾问的不满情绪。
据一位知情人士透露，特朗普此前解除了其儿子的前未婚妻、美国驻希腊大使金伯莉·吉尔福伊尔的职务。此前一名共和党捐赠者披露，吉尔福伊尔曾向其索要10万美元偿还信用卡债务，引发一系列负面报道。此外，特朗普还下令白宫律师调查其两位亲密盟友阿利娜·哈巴·米尔顿与里克·格雷内尔之间的长期纠纷，纠纷围绕所谓肯尼迪中心数百万美元资金被不当分配的指控展开（该调查最初由Axios网站报道）。
同样在短短五天内，特朗普便解雇了新任新闻秘书凯蒂·扎卡里亚，原因是她接连出现失误，其表现遭到普遍批评——就连特朗普的亲密盟友也不例外。
在这些危机当中，特朗普的几位核心助手——办公厅主任苏西·怀尔斯以及外部政治顾问詹姆斯·布莱尔和克里斯·拉西维塔——遭到了负面报道，引发了外界对他们在总统核心圈子内地位的质疑。
为他们辩护的人则认为，这些报道是由竞争对手推动的，目的是改善自己与特朗普的关系。布莱尔在过去一周内曾两次陪同特朗普乘坐空军一号，这表明总统仍然信任他的核心团队。
“针对詹姆斯或克里斯的攻击，实则是冲着苏西来的，”一位熟悉内情的消息人士说道。
两位知情人士透露，这一系列突发事件促使特朗普阵营内各方竞相追查是谁在向他人泄密以及背后目的。政府内部目前也在猜测，如果中期选举结果糟糕，特朗普身边谁会成为替罪羊，哪些高级官员会被解雇，又有多少助手可能在事后选择离职。
“如果我们同时输掉众议院和参议院，真的无法预料会发生什么，”一名特朗普顾问告诉CNN，“所有人都可能成为目标。”
白宫发言人戴维斯·英格尔在一份声明中驳斥了任何针对政府内部动态的猜测，称其为“毫无根据的臆测”。
“特朗普总统正全神贯注于11月保住国会中的共和党多数席位，这也是他为何全国巡讲，宣传本届政府为美国民众取得的历史性胜利的原因，”他说道。
尽管如此，仍有迹象显示内部博弈十分激烈。有消息显示，特朗普任命扎卡里亚担任新闻秘书时，怀尔斯并不在场，这一情况引发了大量审视。两位特朗普顾问表示，一些人将此事解读为怀尔斯的权威正在削弱，为他人将她排挤出这个赋予其广泛权力的职位提供了可乘之机。
当时有传言称怀尔斯可能很快辞职，尤其是在她与癌症抗争数月，且即将达到许多白宫高级助手传统上选择离职的两年任期节点之际。特朗普在首届任期内更换了四位办公厅主任，无人任职满两年。
但怀尔斯并未透露任何离职计划，特朗普最近还公开表态全力支持，坚称“绝不可能”更换她。
“她不会走的，”一名高级政府官员在谈到怀尔斯时说道。
选举结果还将决定多名内阁部长是否会主动离职，以免面临新掌权的民主党人发起的数月调查。国防部长皮特·赫格斯瑟预计将成为国会民主党人的早期攻击目标，长期以来一直有猜测称他可能陷入困境。但特朗普多次为这位风格高调、极具电视镜头感的部长辩护。
还有一些官员猜测，负责处理伊朗战争带来的部分最严重经济后果的能源部长克里斯·赖特，可能会选择离职，转而在能源行业寻求待遇更优厚的工作。
五角大楼发言人肖恩·帕内尔在一份声明中表示，赫格斯瑟并未关注“假新闻或华盛顿的杂音”。能源部发言人则否认赖特考虑离职，并表示他将“只要总统希望他留任，就会继续履职”。
与此同时，其他人也在为特朗普或其亲密盟友可能在选举后展开大规模清算做准备。两位知情人士透露，美国国家卫生研究院院长杰伊·巴塔查里亚的盟友担心，在与白宫预算主管拉斯·沃特就该机构拨款支出控制权发生高调冲突后，他可能成为首批被解雇的人员之一。
美国国立卫生研究院拒绝置评，但一位熟悉内情的人士表示，近几周来该机构与沃特所在部门的工作关系有所改善。
一位白宫官员称，特朗普及其团队完全专注于中期选举。
历届政府在中期选举后都会出现一定程度的人事变动，这同时也是许多高级官员自然离职的节点，也为总统在任期最后两年调整施政重点提供了机会。
但在本届政府中，权力大小主要取决于与特朗普的亲近程度，忠诚度也时刻变化，任何新的职位空缺都可能极大改变白宫内部的权力平衡，改变其施政议程的走向。
据与特朗普交谈过的人士透露，他尚未明确表示计划在选举后进行人事调整。他还表示乐观地认为，最近为共和党候选人展开的全国巡讲，对该党保住国会控制权的胜算起到了积极作用。
但特朗普的许多助手和顾问对胜算仍持悲观态度。他们认为，共和党在众议院的多数席位大概率已难保，当前的目标更多是限制失利的规模。
尽管特朗普的顾问们仍认为他们可以守住参议院，但普遍存在的担忧是，选民对本届政府的反弹加上几场糟糕的参议院竞选活动，让这场保卫战比往常艰难得多。
据与特朗普交谈过的人士透露，就连特朗普本人有时也私下承认了这一挑战。他曾质疑为何共和党面临的政治环境如此糟糕，并对该党的竞选策略表达不满。
这些人士补充称，如果共和党在11月3日遭遇惨重失利，特朗普肯定会找人来承担责任——而这个人绝不会是他自己。
“不管出于什么原因，总统总会在中期选举中失利，”特朗普周二抱怨道，“如果我能让我的选民、让‘让美国再次伟大’的共和党人——不管你怎么称呼他们——出来投票，我们就能以压倒性优势获胜。但他们必须愿意出来投票，而如果你不在选票上，事情就会难一点。”
Fears of a post-midterms Trump rampage spur ‘brutal’ internal jockeying
2026-10-20T22:21:08.454Z / CNN
President Donald Trump still has two weeks to salvage his Republican congressional majorities and defy expectations of a midterm wipeout. But all around him, aides and allies are bracing for what happens if he fails.
Administration officials have grown increasingly convinced that steep GOP losses will trigger major personnel shakeups across the government, as Trump hunts for aides to blame and dozens of others weigh abandoning a lame duck presidency at its lowest point.
The angst has turned a White House that once prided itself on single-minded cohesion into the nerve center for a resurgence of Trump world infighting and leaking, said several administration officials, advisers and close allies, who described a toxic mix of jockeying for power and preemptive finger-pointing in the critical final days leading up to November.
“It’s more brutal than any other situation in modern times in the White House,” said one Trump ally. “You can’t trust anybody here.”
The extraordinary jousting within the administration and throughout Trump’s wider circle has broken into public view on several occasions in just the past two weeks, deepening the atmosphere of mistrust and stoking Trump’s own frustrations with the advisers around him.
Trump ousted Kimberly Guilfoyle, his ambassador to Greece and his son’s former fiancée, after a series of damaging reports prompted by a GOP donor’s disclosure that she’d asked him for $100,000 to pay off her credit card. The president also ordered his White House counsel to investigate a running dispute between two close allies, Alina Habba Mildon and Ric Grenell, over allegations that millions of dollars meant for the Kennedy Center were misallocated, according to a source familiar with the matter (Axios first reported on the investigation).
And Trump fired his new press secretary, Katie Zacharia, after just five days amid several missteps and near-universal backlash to her performance — even among close allies.
Amid those crises, some of Trump’s closest aides — chief of staff Susie Wiles and outside political advisers James Blair and Chris LaCivita — have faced unflattering coverage that sparked questions about their standing within the president’s inner circle.
Their defenders, in turn, contended the stories were being driven by rivals seeking to improve their own relationships with Trump. Blair has since traveled twice with Trump on Air Force One in the past week, in a sign the president still has faith in his core team.
“A knife to James or Chris is meant for Susie,” one source familiar with the dynamics said.
The striking run of incidents has prompted competing efforts across Trump world to smoke out who is leaking against whom and to what end, two people familiar with the matter said. There’s now speculation across the administration over who around Trump will take the fall if the midterms go poorly, which senior officials will be fired and how many aides might opt to leave in the aftermath, those people said.
“If we lose both the House and the Senate, there’s really no telling what happens,” one Trump adviser told CNN. “Everyone is fair game.”
In a statement, White House spokesman Davis Ingle dismissed any focus on the administration’s internal dynamics as “baseless speculation.”
“President Trump is laser-focused on maintaining Republican majorities in Congress this November, which is why he is traveling across the country highlighting the historic victories his Administration has delivered for the American people,” he said.
Still, in a sign of the intense maneuvering, Wiles faced a rush of scrutiny after it became clear she wasn’t present when Trump offered Zacharia the press secretary job. Some interpreted the incident as a sign of weakening authority and an opening to push her out of a job that’s allowed her to wield sweeping power, two Trump advisers said.
There was chatter that Wiles might soon step down, especially after a monthslong bout with cancer and as she approaches a two-year mark where many top White House aides traditionally choose to depart. Trump had four chiefs of staff during his first term and none stayed in the job for two years.
But she has not signaled any plans to leave, and Trump recently issued a full-throated vote of confidence, insisting there’s “zero chance” he’d replace her.
“She’s not going anywhere,” a senior administration official said of Wiles.
The election outcome is also expected to determine whether several Cabinet secretaries leave their posts rather than face the prospect of months of investigations from newly empowered Democrats. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who is expected to be an early target for congressional Democrats, has long battled speculation that he may end up on the hot seat. But Trump has repeatedly defended his zealous, made-for-TV secretary.
Some officials have also speculated that Energy Secretary Chris Wright, who has been charged with managing some of the most damaging economic fallout of the war with Iran, might opt to leave the administration to pursue a more lucrative job in the energy sector.
Sean Parnell, the chief Pentagon spokesman, said in a statement that Hegseth wasn’t focused on “fake news or DC noise.” An Energy Department spokesperson denied that Wright was contemplating leaving and said he would remain in the job “as long as the president wants him to serve.”
Others, meanwhile, are preparing for the prospect of extensive post-election score settling from Trump or his close allies. Allies of Jay Bhattacharya, the head of the National Institutes of Health, have expressed fear that he could be among those most at risk of being fired following a high-profile clash with White House budget chief Russ Vought over control of his agency’s grant spending, two people familiar with the matter said.
The NIH declined to comment, though one person familiar with the dynamics said officials have improved the working relationship between NIH and Vought’s agency in recent weeks.
A White House official said Trump and his team are focused solely on the midterms.
Administrations traditionally face some level of turnover following the midterms, which simultaneously serve as a natural exit point for many senior officials and an opportunity for the president to reset priorities ahead of the final two years of his term.
But within this administration, where power is measured chiefly by one’s proximity to Trump and allegiances are ever-changing, any fresh vacancies could dramatically shift the balance of power within the White House and alter the trajectory of its agenda.
Trump has not yet given any overt indications that he plans to make personnel changes after the elections, according to people who have spoken with him. And he has expressed optimism that his recent travel blitz on behalf of GOP candidates is having a positive impact on the party’s odds of holding control of Congress.
But many of Trump’s aides and advisers remain grim about their chances. The GOP’s House majority, they believe, is likely lost, and at this point the mission is more focused on limiting the scale of those losses.
While Trump advisers still believe they can hold the Senate, there is broad consternation that the combination of voter backlash against the administration and a handful of poor Senate campaigns has made the effort far more difficult than normal.
It’s a challenge that even Trump has privately acknowledged at times, according to the people who have spoken with him. He’s questioned why the political landscape for the GOP is so poor and vented about the party’s political strategy.
Should Republicans suffer extensive losses on November 3, those people added, Trump is certain to find someone to blame — and it won’t be him.
“The president always loses, for whatever reason, the midterms,” Trump lamented on Tuesday. “If I can get my voters, MAGA Republicans, whatever you want to call (them), if they get out to vote, we’ll win in a landslide. But they have to want to get out to vote, and if you’re not on the ballot, it’s a little harder.”
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