2026-10-21T04:01:44.883Z / https://www.cnn.com/2026/10/21/politics/trump-midterms-racial-religious-rhetoric
唐纳德·特朗普在中期选举竞选的最后关头打出了一张王牌：渲染美国文明濒临崩溃的恐慌。
在这位总统看来，当前美国人面临的最大威胁并非食品杂货、汽油、柴油和住房价格高企；并非他发动的伊朗战争陷入泥潭；也并非人工智能可能夺走工作甚至毁灭人类的担忧。
而是除非共和党在中期选举中保住对华盛顿权力的垄断，否则白人基督教文化可能遭到毁灭。
在其历次政治竞选活动中最令人不安的收官论调之一里，特朗普抛出带有种族煽动性的言论；煽动伊斯兰恐惧症式的偏执；炮制虚假场景，宣称儿童未经父母同意便会被大规模跨性别外科手术“阉割”。他还自居为他人信仰与美国身份的裁决者。
“美国人民将挺身而出，宣告我们将保护我们的文明，守护我们的宗教、价值观与传统，绝不会让仇视我们的人征服或摧毁我们的国家，”特朗普周一在堪萨斯州的一场集会上说道，期间他还使用了反犹 slur（注：slur 此处指诽谤性言论，译为“污蔑性言辞”更准确）。
在担任总统近六年来的最脆弱政治时刻，特朗普并未就其执政期间在民生负担或外交政策方面的表现提出有说服力的创新性辩护。他正强化让他声名鹊起的焦土式叙事，并试图通过利用国内痛苦的分裂来攫取权力。
在他乐于涉足某些最敏感文化议题的一个例证中，特朗普在堪萨斯州的集会上警告称，民主党参议员候选人亚当·汉密尔顿曾要求人们“为自己生来是白人而忏悔”。这是对该候选人关于种族、自我反思与个人信仰的更为宽泛的言论的歪曲。
但准确还原细节根本不是他的目的。
特朗普还一直声称，出生于密歇根州的民主党参议员候选人阿卜杜勒·埃尔-赛义德是一名“圣战分子”，并于周二晚间在北卡罗来纳州的集会上重复了这一污蔑。他还以“如果你对名字有任何疑问，就叫这家伙穆罕默德，大概率不会错”为由，将埃尔-赛义德称为“穆罕默德”。
这类刻板印象不仅仅是为了抹黑政治对手。它暗示所有与该对象共享同一信仰或族裔特征的人都缺乏个体应有的独特人性，并非真正的美国人。
这位总统在堪萨斯州的集会中再次暴露了其思维定式，当时他用“夏洛克”——一个反犹污蔑性用词——为共和党参议员罗杰·马歇尔辩护，回击对方关于医疗收费行为的批评。这一次，他无法再辩称自己不知道该词汇的隐含恶意：他曾在2025年公开使用该词引发轩然大波。
这位总统的煽动早已超越了泛化的宗教与种族攻击。
他本月在亚利桑那州警告称，民主党掌控国会将导致学校内出现大规模儿童性别过渡手术。“他们想要阉割、切割你的孩子。他们的所作所为令人发指……你的儿子出门时还是吉米，三天后回家就变成了珍妮特，他们甚至都不会征求你的意见，”他说道。他上周在佐治亚州、周二晚间在北卡罗来纳州都讲述了类似的毫无根据的谎言。
近期，在他此前警告社会主义者和共产主义者想要摧毁共和国之后，他又煽动人们担忧席卷法国的骚乱会在民主党获胜后波及大西洋彼岸。他周二再次妖魔化出生于索马里的明尼苏达州民主党众议员伊尔汗·奥马尔，称这位归化美国公民不配享有宪法权利，只因她来自一个“粪坑国家”。
这位总统还试图煽动宗教偏执，暗示不认同其支持者特定政治信条的虔诚信徒是国家威胁。周一，他嘲讽汉密尔顿作为联合基督教会复兴教堂领袖的宗教资质。“他行事不像一名牧师，因为他的观点不符合牧师的立场，”特朗普说道。
尽管承认自己绝非《圣经》爱好者，特朗普却将自己塑造成一个伪先知，声称一位不愿具名的德州宗教领袖的预测是正确的，该领袖称“他将引领我们进入一段……无人能及的基督教时代”。
长期以来，特朗普一直通过树立敌人与外来者来定义自我。当他拥有一个攻击目标时，其政治影响力便会达到顶峰。许多政客都曾夸大其词。有些人，比如特朗普，有时会以玩笑为幌子发表报复性言论，以此为自己的政治言论打掩护。例如，副总统JD·万斯周一就借用了“非美国外来者”的论调，调侃称他一场集会上的抗议者肯定是非法越境者，才会做出如此举动。
与此同时，许多自由派人士倾向于认为，特朗普的所有支持者都与其运动领袖明显的种族与宗教偏见一致。这对那些认同他全部竞选信息的选民来说并不公平。
担忧民主党未能妥善管控南部边境未必就是种族主义。一些美国人确实担忧穆斯林或其他信仰群体的扩张会完全融入当地社会，抑或是改变他们所在城市的特质与风俗习惯。而像候选人对中东的看法，或是对穆斯林兄弟会等组织的态度，完全可以在竞选辩论中展开讨论。埃尔-赛义德也并非不愿谈及这些议题。
然而，用政治顾问的话来说，特朗普的做法远不止于向支持者抛出“红肉”（注：指迎合选民情绪的煽动性言论）。如此老练的政治操盘手不可能在台上信口开河，这种说法并不可信。反复使用尖锐主题，频繁诉诸种族或宗教陈词滥调，正在制造一种恐慌模式。
特朗普重拾其最具煽动性的叙事之际，正穿梭于红色州，孤注一掷地动员最保守选民的投票率，试图挽救处境岌岌可危的共和党候选人。他十年顶级政治生涯的经历表明，其黑暗言论可以成为动员口号。
但即便对向来无视政治礼仪的特朗普而言，此番煽动性言论也显得格外极端。这看起来像是一次刻意的转移注意力之举；试图将一场被民生负担议题主导的选举的意义重新定义——而他发动的伊朗战争更让选民的经济困境雪上加霜。
尚不清楚此举是否会奏效。如果他能调动那些仅在他参与竞选时才会出来投票的低活跃度选民，或许他能挽救一些原本以为2026年不会面临激烈竞争的红色州共和党议员。
但白宫战略家们显然明白，他的离谱言论会疏远温和派选民，因此本周并未派他前往选情胶着的摇摆州。
南卡罗来纳州前共和党州长马克·桑福德周二告诉CNN的艾琳·伯内特，聚焦关于跨性别儿童的虚假故事不太可能缓解共和党人的弱势处境。
“我认为这偏离了主题，因为我在南卡罗来纳州内外接触到的绝大多数民众都在担忧经济、担忧生活负担、担忧通货膨胀，”桑福德说道，“如果当前的状况对你不利，这或许是转移话题的一种方式……但我不认为这是能打动摇摆选民的议题。”
特朗普两届任期内的喧嚣闹剧有时已经让人们对其出格行为见怪不怪，或是让批评者感到疲惫，毕竟他总是用尖酸刻薄的言论铺天盖地地轰炸舆论。当然，美国政治长期以来一直受种族主义困扰。偏执情绪不时在政治生活中浮出水面，往往是在政客将其作为攫取更多权力的工具之时。
然而，目睹一位总统、一位国家元首如此刻意地利用其话语权撕裂全国的种族、宗教与文化分歧，依然令人震惊。过往的总统，比如理查德·尼克松、罗纳德·里根或乔治·H·W·布什——甚至是通过《民权法案》的林登·约翰逊——如果出于政治目的打出种族牌，也只会隐晦或隐喻地表达。
特朗普从不搞这种拐弯抹角。通过抨击无证移民、少数族裔议员与跨性别公民，他似乎在刻意划定谁属于美国、谁有权享有国家赋予的权利——这条道路既威胁到个体公民，也威胁到国家团结。
但尽管其言论气势汹汹，此番传递的信息却暗示着脆弱。
在特朗普的总统竞选活动中，寻找外部敌人归咎美国的困境，往往是激励其支持者的一股力量。如今，随着他的支持率接近历史低点，这位强人眼中国家被外来者包围的自负，更像是一个处境衰落的领袖在做最后一搏——而非一个有能力通过说服扩大吸引力的领导者。
民调显示，大多数美国人对特朗普的执政表现、经济管理以及标志性的对外战争感到不满，因此他试图通过煽动性言论转移焦点的做法似乎不太可能得逞。难怪共和党人对11月3日的选举愈发感到不安。
To save the midterms, Trump is recharging the grievance politics that made him president
2026-10-21T04:01:44.883Z / https://www.cnn.com/2026/10/21/politics/trump-midterms-racial-religious-rhetoric
Donald Trump is playing one of his final cards in the midterm election race: fear of an American civilizational collapse.
To hear the president, the greatest current threat to Americans is not the prohibitive cost of groceries, gasoline, diesel and housing; his Iran war quagmire; or concerns that AI could wipe out jobs and even humanity.
It’s that White, Christian culture could be destroyed unless his Republican monopoly on Washington power is preserved in the midterm elections.
In one of the most foreboding closing arguments of any of his political campaigns, Trump is flinging racially charged rhetoric; conjuring Islamophobic paranoia; and stirring up false visions of kids being mutilated in mass transgender surgeries without parental consent. He’s also acting as an arbiter of others’ faith and American identify.
“Americans are going to stand up and declare that we will protect our civilization, we will preserve our religion, our values and our heritage, and we will never let our nation be conquered or destroyed by people that hate us,” Trump said at a rally in Kansas on Monday, at which he also used an antisemitic slur.
At his most vulnerable political moment in nearly six years as president, Trump isn’t responding with compelling, innovative defenses of his record on affordability or foreign policy. He’s intensifying the scorched-earth imagery that made his name and seeking to replenish power by weaponizing painful national divides.
In an example of his willingness to wade into some of the most sensitive cultural issues, Trump warned at his Kansas event that Democratic Senate nominee Adam Hamilton told people to “repent because you were born White.” This was a misrepresentation of the candidate’s far more expansive remarks on race, self-reflection and personal faith.
But getting the details right is hardly the point.
Trump has also been claiming that US-born Michigan Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed is a “jihadist,” a smear he repeated Tuesday night in North Carolina. And he has been referring to El-Sayed as “Mohammed” on the basis that if “you have any problem with names, just call the guy Mohammed. You’ll probably be right.”
Such stereotyping is not merely aimed at disqualifying a political foe. It implies that everyone who shares that person’s faith or ethnic characteristics lacks the distinguishing humanity of an individual and is not authentically American.
The president offered another glimpse into his mindset in Kansas when he used “Shylock” — an antisemitic slur — to defend GOP Sen. Roger Marshall against criticism over medical billing practices. This time, he can’t say he was unaware of the term’s insinuations: He caused a storm by using it publicly in 2025.
The president is going beyond generalizing over religion and race.
He warned in Arizona this month that a Democratic Congress would lead to widespread gender transitions of children in schools. “They want to mutilate, cut your children. It’s unbelievable, what they do. … Your son leaves as Jimmy and comes back home in three days as Janet, and they don’t even ask you,” he said. He told similar baseless tales in Georgia last week and in North Carolina on Tuesday evening.
In recent days, he’s stoked fears that the rioting rocking France will cross the Atlantic if the Democrats win, after a campaign in which he’s warned socialists and communists want to obliterate the republic. He again demonized Somali-born Minnesota Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar on Tuesday, dismissing the idea that the naturalized American citizen is entitled to constitutional rights because she is originally from a “shithouse” country.
The president has also sought to foster religious intolerance by implying that the faithful who do not share his sympathizers’ specific political creed are a national threat. On Monday, he mocked Hamilton’s religious credentials as a leader in the United Methodist Church of the Resurrection. “He doesn’t act like a pastor because his views aren’t of a pastor,” Trump said.
While admitting he’s hardly a Bible aficionado, Trump nevertheless portrayed himself as a pseudo-prophet, claiming that an unnamed Texas religious leader had been correct to predict that “he’s going to lead us to a period of time … in Christianity that nobody else can do.”
Trump has long sought to identify enemies and outsiders against whom to define himself. He’s most politically effective when he has a foil. And many politicians are guilty of exaggeration. Some, like Trump, sometimes dole out vindictive comments framed as jokes to create a layer of political cover. Vice President JD Vance, for instance, tapped into the theme of un-American outsiders, quipping Monday that a protester at one of his events must have crossed the border illegally to behave in such a manner.
Many liberals have meanwhile tended to assume that all Trump’s supporters share the apparent racial and religious prejudices of their movement’s leader. That’s not a fair criticism of voters who find the totality of his message appealing.
It is not necessarily racist to worry that Democrats didn’t properly secure the southern border. Some Americans genuinely worry whether expanding Muslim or other faith communities will fully integrate or change the character of their cities and customs. And it’s perfectly appropriate for issues like a candidate’s views on the Middle East or groups like the Muslim Brotherhood to be litigated in campaign debates. El-Sayed has hardly been unwilling to address them.
Yet Trump is going much further than simply throwing out “red meat” to supporters, in the phraseology of political consultants. It’s not credible that such a sophisticated political operator is mindlessly blurting out random thoughts during his onstage weave. The repetition of searing themes and the frequent resort to racial or religious tropes is creating a pattern of fear.
Trump’s return to some of his most inflammatory imagery coincides with a swing through red states in a last-ditch bid to jolt turnout among the most conservative voters as he tries to save vulnerable Republican candidates. His decade in top-flight politics has shown his dark rhetoric can be a rallying cry.
But even for Trump, in a political career that has always flouted decorum, the latest demagoguery is stark. It comes across as a deliberate attempt at distraction; an effort to reframe the stakes of an election dominated by concerns about affordability — and voter economic plights worsened by his war in Iran.
It’s unclear whether it will work. If he can animate low-intensity voters who have shown up only when he’s on the ballot, maybe he’ll save some red-state Republicans who never expected they’d face a fight for their careers in 2026.
But White House strategists show they understand how his outlandish comments can alienate more moderate voters by not sending him this week to swing states with the tightest races.
And Mark Sanford, the Republican former governor of South Carolina, told CNN’s Erin Burnett on Tuesday that concentrating on false stories about transgender kids was unlikely to mitigate GOP vulnerabilities.
“I think it’s off-topic because the preponderance of folks that I talked to in and around South Carolina are worried about the economy, they’re worried about affordability. They’re worried about inflation,” Sanford said. “I guess it’s a way of changing the subject if what’s going on isn’t working for you … but I don’t see this as the issue that’s going to move swing voters.”
The cacophony of Trump’s two terms has sometimes dimmed shock over his antics or simply exhausted his critics as he floods the zone with acrimony. American politics, of course, has long been scarred by racism. Bigotry has periodically rushed to the surface of political life, often when cultivated by a politician who sees it as a vehicle to amass more power.
Yet it’s still remarkable to witness a president, a head of state, so consciously using his megaphone to tear at national racial, religious and cultural divides. When past presidents like Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan or George H.W. Bush — or even Lyndon Johnson, who passed the Civil Rights Act — wanted to play a race card for political reasons, they did it implicitly or metaphorically.
Trump doesn’t do such subtlety. By lashing out at undocumented migrants, minority lawmakers and transgender citizens, he seems to be deliberately trying to delineate who belongs in America and benefits from its rights — a path that is both threatening to individual citizens and national unity.
But for all its ferocity, the message this time around hints at vulnerability.
In Trump’s presidential campaigns, his search for outside foes on whom to blame America’s woes was often a galvanizing force for his movement. Now, with his popularity near record lows, the strongman’s conceit of a nation besieged by outsiders suggests a diminished leader making a last stand — rather than one with the capacity to expand his appeal through persuasion.
And with polls showing majorities of Americans sour on Trump’s performance, economic management and signature foreign war, his attempt at inflammatory distraction seems unlikely to prevail. No wonder the GOP views November 3 with growing trepidation.