2026-09-20T04:00:29.194Z / 美国有线电视新闻网（CNN）
尽管总统唐纳德·特朗普的个人言行向来怪异，但过去12天里的所作所为仍堪称出格——尤其是在中期选举即将到来之际。
他向选民抛出了连一些共和党人都认为堪称贿赂的承诺。他还（疑似开玩笑？）威胁称，如果某州不选出共和党籍参议员，就扣留该州的救灾援助。在“9·11”事件25周年纪念日前夕，他编造了一则可信度存疑的故事，声称自己当时距离世贸废墟很近。他毫无根据地暗示民主党密谋刺杀自己。他威胁要终止所有对外贸易。他还以肯尼迪艺术中心的未来相要挟，要求法官允许将他的名字刻在中心内。而如今，他更是拒绝包括CNN在内的多家媒体进入白宫。
特朗普政治声望下滑最被低估的原因之一，是美国民众对其领导能力信心的丧失。
近几个月的民调显示：
- 67%的美国人认为他不会认真考量重要决策。
- 71%的人认为他“性格不够沉稳”。
- 福克斯新闻和CNN的民调均显示，超过七成美国成年人和登记选民认为，他甚至没有应对伊朗局势的作战计划。
而在2026年中期选举的筹备阶段，他非但没有打消民众的这些疑虑，反而变本加厉。
特朗普提出，如果共和党保住众议院和参议院的多数席位，就向每位美国成年人发放5000美元现金，这显然是一种政治交易。登记选民中66%对18%认为此举“不合时宜”。
他周三发出的一则半开玩笑式威胁同样引发热议：如果北卡罗来纳州选出民主党参议员，就扣留该州的救灾援助。特朗普事后称自己是在开玩笑，但他政府过往的记录显示，共和党政府在这类事务上确实存在歧视蓝色州的情况。而且哪怕只是开这种玩笑，也相当不妥。
正如CNN记者丹尼尔·戴尔所言，他在“9·11”周年纪念日前讲述的消防员因担心大楼倒塌而将他撤离的故事，未经证实，往好里说也带有误导性。如果说这个故事有夸大成分的话，那听起来就像是总统在窃取他人的荣誉。
特朗普本周还声称，今年在宾夕法尼亚州巴特勒发生的针对他的2024年刺杀事件是“民主党为了让我退出选举而策划的阴谋”——如果这一说法属实，无疑是爆炸性指控。但目前没有任何证据表明民主党人牵涉其中，他也未提供更多细节。事实上，刺杀未遂者托马斯·克鲁克斯是登记在册的共和党人。甚至就在特朗普发表此番言论的当天，联邦调查局局长卡什·帕特尔作证称，没有证据表明克鲁克斯“除了和父母之外，还和其他任何人有过接触”。
特朗普多次威胁，如果美联储不降息，就将终止美国与绝大多数国家的大额对外贸易——包括所有对美存在贸易逆差的国家。特朗普周三在北卡罗来纳州称：“如果我们停止与所有存在贸易逆差的国家（其中大多数国家都符合这一情况）进行贸易，而这做起来非常容易，我们每年至少能多赚1.5万亿美元。”这种逻辑根本站不住脚。
到了周五，特朗普突然宣布“立即生效”禁止CNN、MS NOW和政客报进入白宫，此举甚至让他的部分幕僚都措手不及。周六上午，一名CNN记者被拒绝进入白宫园区，其记者证被没收。政客报的一名记者以及MS NOW的一名记者和摄影师同样被拒之门外。
特朗普的其他一些行为虽然规模较小，但同样耐人寻味。
特朗普周二暗示，他提名的最高法院大法官可能并未如实披露其任职意向，称他们“不是我当初面试过的那些人”，“只是当初的空架子罢了”。他打破美国长期以来的外交政策惯例，公开赞扬爱尔兰实现统一的可能性。尽管大量美国人对人工智能安全问题深感担忧，他仍将相关担忧斥为“骗局”。
最后，特朗普本周大部分时间都在设法迫使法院允许将他的名字刻在肯尼迪艺术中心，尽管这一行为显然违法。如今他明确表示，如果不能如愿，可能会任由该机构衰败下去。
如今看来仿佛已是很久以前的事了，但特朗普第一任期内的讨论焦点往往集中在他的“性格”和推文上。他的所作所为无疑在一定程度上让美国人变得麻木。
但在中期选举临近、其政党对权力的掌控岌岌可危、而选民又对他作为领导人的沉稳性存在切实疑虑之际，他本应收敛这些行为。
但特朗普却反其道而行之，愈发肆无忌惮。
Trump is only amping up his antics ahead of the midterm election
2026-09-20T04:00:29.194Z / CNN
While President Donald Trump’s personal behavior is often strange, his conduct over the last 12 days has been pretty remarkable — especially with the midterm election around the corner.
He’s offered voters what even some Republicans say amounts to a bribe. He’s threatened (jokingly?) to withhold disaster aid from a state if it doesn’t elect a GOP senator. Ahead of the 25th anniversary of 9/11, he told a dubious story about his proximity to Ground Zero. He’s baselessly suggested Democrats conspired to kill him. He’s threatened to halt all foreign trade. He’s holding the future of the Kennedy Center hostage if judges don’t allow him to put his name on it. And now he’s denying certain media outlets, including CNN, access to the White House.
One of the most underestimated reasons for the decline in Trump’s political fortunes is Americans’ loss of faith in his leadership capabilities.
Polling in recent months has shown:
- 67% of Americans said he doesn’t carefully consider important decisions.
- 71% said he’s not “even-tempered.”
- And more than 7 in 10 adults and registered voters said he doesn’t even have a plan for the Iran war, according to both Fox News and CNN polling.
And in the runup to the 2026 midterm elections, he’s doing very little to disabuse people of these notions.
Trump’s offer of $5,000 to every adult US citizen if Republicans keep their House and Senate majorities is certainly a quid pro quo. Registered voters say 66%-18% that it’s “inappropriate.”
His joke-y threat Wednesday to withhold disaster aid from North Carolina if it elects a Democratic senator is also eyebrow-raising. Trump said he was kidding, but his track record makes clear his administration has discriminated against blue states on such things. And it’s a pretty unfunny thing to even joke about.
His tale ahead of the 9/11 anniversary about firefighters carrying him away amid fears of a building collapse was unconfirmed and misleading at best, as CNN’s Daniel Dale wrote. And to the extent the story is embellished, it sounds a lot like the president stealing valor.
Trump also claimed this week that the 2024 assassination attempt against him in Butler, Pennsylvania, was “a Democrat Plot, to get me out of the Election” — an explosive claim, if there were any truth to it. But there remains no evidence that any Democrats were involved and he didn’t provide any more detail. Indeed, attempted assassin Thomas Crooks was a registered Republican. And even the same day as Trump’s comments, FBI Director Kash Patel testified that there was “no evidence” that Crooks “was literally even speaking to any other human being other than his parents.”
Trump repeatedly threatened to halt large portions of US foreign trade — including with all countries with whom the US has a trade deficit — if the Federal Reserve doesn’t lower interest rates. “If we stop trading with every country that we have a deficit with, which is most of them, and which would be very easy to do, we’d make at least $1.5 trillion a year,” Trump claimed Wednesday in North Carolina. That logic makes no sense.
By Friday, Trump suddenly announced he was “banning” CNN, MS NOW and Politico from the White House “effective immediately,” catching even some of his own staff off guard. A CNN reporter was denied access to White House grounds Saturday morning and her press pass was seized. A reporter for Politico and a reporter and photographer for MS NOW were also denied access.
Some of the other examples of Trump’s behavior are a little more small-bore, but curious nonetheless.
Trump on Tuesday suggested the Supreme Court justices he nominated might have misrepresented their intentions, saying that they were “not the people I interviewed” and “are merely a shell of their original selves.” He broke with longstanding US foreign policy protocol by praising the prospect of the reunification of Ireland. He called concerns about AI safety a “hoax” despite large swaths of Americans being quite concerned about that topic.
And finally, Trump has spent much of this week angling for a way to force the courts to let him put his name on the Kennedy Center, despite that being apparently illegal. Trump is now explicitly suggesting he might let the institution wither and die if he doesn’t get what he wants.
It seems like a long time ago, but the talk during Trump’s first term was often about his “temperament” and his tweets. His conduct has surely desensitized Americans to some degree.
But these seem like the kinds of behaviors he’d want to rein in ahead of a midterm election where his party’s grip on power is on the line and voters have real doubts about his steadiness as a leader.
Trump has gone in the other direction, by upping the antics.