2026-09-16T18:39:41.699Z / https://www.cnn.com/2026/09/16/politics/trump-losses-kennedy-center
唐纳德·特朗普在一连串政治打击后怒不可遏，这些打击削弱了他在华盛顿乃至全球的霸主地位预设。
这是总统们偶尔会遭遇的艰难一周，多项核心议程似乎同时脱轨。
最高法院裁定阻止特朗普在中期选举前限制邮寄选票的计划，这让他对自己第一任期任命的最高法院大法官们怒不可遏，他斥责这些大法官已经“沦为过去自己的影子”。
一家下级法院再次阻挠特朗普翻新肯尼迪中心的提案。这座艺术殿堂的风波——特朗普如今计划关闭该中心——造成的破坏最大，因为它暴露了特朗普不光彩的一面。所有人都清楚，这本质上是特朗普试图将自己的名字刻在这座纪念遇刺总统的永久纪念碑上。
周二，特朗普的权威再次受到打击：共和党主导的众议院投票要求他结束对伊朗的战争，另有三名共和党议员倒戈，使党内异见者人数增至七人。
与此同时，特朗普提出的中期选举重大承诺——若共和党在11月获胜，将向每位美国人发放5000美元支票——看起来已胎死腹中，国会山的共和党人纷纷与该主张划清界限。周三，作为特朗普亲密盟友的众议院议长迈克·约翰逊选择让议员们提前一天放假，以避免就弹劾国防部长皮特·赫格斯西举行可能引发尴尬的投票。
周三，美联储再次含蓄地驳斥了特朗普：在特朗普亲自挑选的新任主席凯文·沃什的领导下，美联储自2023年7月以来首次加息，这彰显了中央银行的独立性。数月来，特朗普一直要求大幅降息，却无视其贸易和战争政策加剧的通胀上升风险。
特朗普所设想的美国不受挑战的海外霸权也正在受到侵蚀。
一个令人震惊的事态发展是，作为强大北美贸易集团三分之一成员的加拿大，刚刚被邀请加入另一个集团——欧盟的准成员国行列。此前特朗普以主权威胁和关税攻击迫使加拿大寻找新的伙伴。
特朗普在何时结束对伊战争问题上的摇摆不定，掩盖不了局势的恶化。由伊朗支持的胡塞武装刚刚占领了曼德海峡内外的土地，这可能让他们在另一条关键石油出口航线掌握主动权，而美国目前仍在全力重新打通霍尔木兹海峡。
总统本周接连遭遇不幸，这不仅仅是第二任期总统通常会遇到的政治小挫折。
每一次挫折都源于特朗普一次重大且冒险的赌注，以及他显然对自身个人和政治权力过于乐观的评估。
他严厉斥责布雷特·卡瓦诺、尼尔·戈萨奇和艾米·康尼·巴雷特大法官，称他们参与了多数票裁决，阻止他在中期选举前通过邮寄选票制造混乱。特朗普在真相社交平台上写道：“这些人不是我当初面试时要任命到美国最高法院的人。”这番批评颇具启示性，因为它表明特朗普认为自己任命的大法官应该以某种方式裁决案件，以报答他对这些人的个人知遇之恩。
民主党人一直抱怨最高法院常常与特朗普的扩张性行政权力愿景保持一致。但这三位大法官有时也会限制特朗普的权力。如今时局动荡，但最高法院大法官维护宪法——宪法将选举控制权交给各州——本不足为奇。他们的终身任期也意味着，即便特朗普卸任，他们仍将长期塑造自己的司法遗产。
人们将密切关注特朗普对美联储加息的反应。在数月施压前主席杰罗姆·鲍威尔多次降息后，特朗普对沃什寄予厚望。
特朗普或许比任何其他总统都更致力于削弱宪法和惯例对行政权力的制约。例如，他通过迅雷不及掩耳的行动超越法院最初的裁决，削弱联邦政府部分职能，取得了特别显著的“成效”。
但肯尼迪中心闹剧、邮寄选票裁决和美联储独立性事件都是重要信号。它们表明，即便面对这位毫不留情的总统，部分政府机构仍坚守立场。
十年来，特朗普一直主导着共和党。但他无法在这场宪法存疑的战争中维持党内一致支持；他未能迫使参议院通过其选民登记法案；议员们对他的5000美元“福利赠与”提议态度冷淡，这些都表明他的权力基础正在出现裂痕。
加拿大向欧盟示好是一场非同寻常的地缘政治冲击。第二届特朗普政府将美国对西半球的霸权奉为圭臬。但这个地理和文化上最亲密的盟友正寻求与“美国优先”的邻国进行极具象征意义的决裂，这表明加拿大如今在政治和道义上更倾向于与欧洲站在一起。
目前尚不清楚欧盟准成员国身份具体意味着什么，也不清楚如果当前的关税战结束，这将如何改变加拿大与美国庞大的贸易关系。但很明显，特朗普的“第51个州”威胁让渥太华得出结论：即便特朗普卸任，加拿大也不能依赖华盛顿。北美贸易关系弱化、联盟体系破裂，最终将削弱华盛顿投射西方统一力量的能力。
同样，伊朗冲突也在不断削弱本届政府“美国实力强大，可以为所欲为”的自负。
总统无法说明这场战争会在中期选举前还是选举后结束。伊朗武装力量或许已被击溃，经济陷入自由落体状态，但在这场美国这个超级大国都难以应对的战争打响近八个月后，德黑兰的革命政权依旧根深蒂固。
那么，特朗普本周遭遇的重大逆转将如何改变他的政治立场、影响中期选举，并为选举季后华盛顿新的权力平衡定下基调？
一个明显的结论是，政治常态可能正在回归。伊朗战争倒戈事件表明，特朗普也无法逃脱政治惯例：处境危险的议员会设法与不受欢迎的总统保持距离。
“在我们与总统意见一致的地方，我们会与他并肩作战；在我们与他在牛肉、关税、伊朗军事行动现状等问题上存在分歧的地方，我们会直言不讳，展开对话。”周二投票支持结束伊朗战争的艾奥瓦州众议员扎克·纳恩告诉CNN的马努·拉朱。
这对中期选举来说是个不祥之兆。纳恩显然是在回应特朗普铁票仓中的选民情绪。他的处境表明，共和党选民基础正在削弱。
特朗普容易受到普通政治力量影响这一点意义重大，因为去年的氛围是他几乎不可阻挡；他已经打破了所有政治护栏，能够迫使顶级律所、企业高管和大学校长屈膝臣服。
这并不是说特朗普的政治影响力已经耗尽。长期以来，他一直打破了专家们对他政治末日的预测。不到两年前，他实现了美国历史上最伟大的政治复出。
如果民主党在中期选举中夺回众议院或参议院，特朗普反而可能找到新的政治定位。民主党若在 promised 的针对白宫的大规模调查或意识形态转向中过度行事，将为这位唯有在对手衬托下才能发挥最大作用的政治斗士打开突破口。
但对于这位支持率仅为30%多的总统来说，本周权力明显流失的情况不容忽视。
一旦不可战胜的光环褪去，政治权威会迅速消散。
本头条已更新。
Trump’s frustration hits a boiling point with loss after loss
2026-09-16T18:39:41.699Z / https://www.cnn.com/2026/09/16/politics/trump-losses-kennedy-center
Donald Trump is boiling with frustration after a spate of political blows weakened his presumption of dominance in Washington and abroad.
It’s been one of those tough weeks that presidents sometimes suffer, when multiple priorities seem to unravel all at once.
The Supreme Court’s decision to block Trump’s plan to restrict mail-in voting ahead of the midterms left him fuming at his first-term appointees on the top bench, whom he slammed as “a shell” of their former selves.
A lower court again frustrated Trump’s bid to renovate the Kennedy Center. The drama over the arts citadel, which Trump now plans to shut down, is most damaging because it’s an unflattering character reveal. Everyone knows this is really about him trying to muscle his own name onto the living memorial to an assassinated president.
The president’s authority took another dent Tuesday when the GOP-led House voted to require him to end his war with Iran, as three more Republicans swelled the list of party heretics to seven.
Trump’s big midterm offer of a $5,000 check for every American if Republicans win in November, meanwhile, looks dead in the water after Capitol Hill GOPers distanced themselves from the idea. And Speaker Mike Johnson, a close Trump ally, chose to send House lawmakers home Wednesday — a day earlier than planned — to avoid a potentially embarrassing vote on whether to impeach Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.
Wednesday brought another implied rebuke to Trump when the Federal Reserve, under Trump’s handpicked new Chair Kevin Warsh, raised interest rates for the first time since July 2023 in a sign of central bank independence. Trump has spent months demanding large cuts to the cost of borrowing, ignoring the specter of rising inflation that his trade and war policies exacerbated.
Trump’s vision of unchallenged US power abroad is also being undermined.
In a stunning development, Canada, a third of the mighty North American trading bloc, was just offered associate membership in another group, the European Union, as it seeks new friends following Trump’s sovereignty threats and tariff attacks.
And Trump’s waffling over when the Iran war will end can’t cover up a worsening situation. Tehran-backed Houthi rebels just seized land in and around the Bab al-Mandeb Strait, potentially giving them leverage over another critical oil exporting route while the US is still struggling to fully reopen the Strait of Hormuz.
The president’s cascade of misfortunes this week collectively point to more than the typical political dings for second-term presidents.
Each arises from a big, risky Trump bet and an apparently over-optimistic assessment of his own personal and political power.
He bitterly rebuked Justices Brett Kavanaugh, Neil Gorsuch and Amy Coney Barrett for appearing to be part of the majority that blocked his bid to sow chaos over postal ballots ahead of the midterms. “These are not the people I interviewed to serve on the United States Supreme Court,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. His critique is revealing because it shows a belief that his appointees would adjudicate the law in a way that repaid a personal debt to the president.
Democrats gripe about a Supreme Court that has often shared Trump’s vision of expansive executive authority. But at times, these three justices have also reined in Trump’s power. These are turbulent times, but it shouldn’t be surprising when Supreme Court justices uphold the Constitution, which gives control of elections to the states. Their lifetime tenure also means they’ll be forging their own legacies long after Trump leaves office.
Trump’s reaction to the Fed’s rate hike will be closely watched. The president picked Warsh with high expectations after spending months hounding his predecessor Jerome Powell for multiple rate cuts.
Trump has perhaps done more than any other president to erode the constraints on executive power imposed by the Constitution and custom. He has found particular success, for instance, in his evisceration of parts of the federal government by acting with shock and awe to outpace initial court action.
But the Kennedy Center farce, the mail-in voting decision and Fed independence are important indicators. They show that even faced with a relentless president, some institutions of government are standing firm.
Trump has dominated the Republican Party for a decade. But his inability to maintain unanimous support over a constitutionally questionable war; his failure to browbeat the Senate into passing his voter registration bill; and lawmakers’ coolness to his $5,000 giveaway idea suggest cracks are emerging in his power base.
Canada’s overtures to the EU represent an extraordinary geopolitical shock. The second Trump administration made US hegemony over the Western Hemisphere an article of faith. But the country’s closet geographical and cultural ally is seeking a highly symbolic break with its “America First” neighbor, a sign it now feels more politically and morally aligned with Europe.
It’s unclear what associate membership of the EU means and how it would alter Canada’s huge trade relationship with the US if the current tariff war ends. But it’s clear Trump’s “51st state” threats led Ottawa to conclude it cannot depend on Washington even when Trump leaves office. A weaker North American trade relationship and fractured alliance system will ultimately weaken Washington’s ability to project unified Western power.
Equally, the Iran conflict is chipping away at the administration’s conceit that the US is so powerful it can do exactly as it wants.
The president can’t say whether the war will end before or after the midterms. Iran’s armed forces might be crushed and its economy in free fall. But Tehran’s revolutionary regime is as entrenched as ever nearly eight months into a war in which it defied a superpower.
So how will Trump’s week of big reversals alter his political position, play into the midterms and set the tone for whatever new balance of Washington power emerges from election season?
One obvious takeaway is that political gravity may be reasserting itself. The Iran war defections show that Trump is not immune from the ritual of endangered lawmakers seeking distance from an unpopular president.
“Where we agree with the president, we’re going to fight with him. Where we disagree with the president on things like beef, on tariffs, on the current state of how operations are working in Iran, we’re going to call him out and have a conversation on that,” Iowa Rep. Zach Nunn, who voted for an end to the war Tuesday, told CNN’s Manu Raju.
This is a bad midterm omen. Nunn is obviously reacting to voter sentiment in a solid Trump state. His plight suggests the Republican foundation is weakening.
Trump’s susceptibility to ordinary political forces is significant because the vibe last year was that he was all but unstoppable; that he had obliterated every guardrail and could compel elite law firms, corporate executives and university presidents to genuflect.
This is not to say that Trump is an exhausted force. He’s long defied pundits predicting his political demise. He engineered the greatest comeback in American history less than two years ago.
And if Democrats win back the House or the Senate in the midterms, Trump could paradoxically find new political definition. Any Democratic overreach during a promised blizzard of probes into the White House or an ideological dive left would offer an opening to a political street fighter who is most effective with a foil.
But a week in which power has tangibly ebbed from a president with an approval rating in the 30s can’t be ignored.
Once an aura of invincibility fades, political authority can erode quickly.
This headline has been updated.