在过去十年左右的时间里，唐纳德·特朗普对弗拉基米尔·普京的支持表现得相当直白、毫不掩饰。然而在最近几周里，这位美国总统为了讨好普京，甚至采取了一些极其夸张、近乎荒谬的手段。这些行为包括：为俄罗斯柴油燃料的进口提供制裁豁免、重复克里姆林宫的言论、向俄罗斯经济注入数十亿美元、对乌克兰进行虚假指控、无视美国禁止进口俄罗斯石油的法律法规、对俄罗斯在美伊战争中的协助行为视而不见，以及为莫斯科争取外交上的“胜利”——而这一切，换来的只是俄罗斯对美国的更多攻击。
Over the past decade or so, Donald Trump hasn’t exactly been subtle about his support for Vladimir Putin, but in recent weeks, the American president has gone to almost cartoonish lengths to reward his Russian counterpart. The list includes instances in which the Republican offered sanctions relief for Russian diesel fuel, echoed Kremlin talking points, pumped billions of dollars into the Russian economy, peddled false accusations against Ukraine, ignored existing U.S. laws that ban Russian oil imports, looked the other way on Russia aiding Iran during the ongoing U.S. war, and delivered diplomatic victories for Moscow — all in exchange for nothing except more deadly attacks.
然而，在周三上午，特朗普终于声称自己从俄罗斯领导人那里获得了某种让步。他在自己的社交媒体平台上发表声明称，74岁的退休教师斯蒂芬·哈伯德已被普京政府释放，并即将返回家中。
On Wednesday morning, however, Trump finally claimed to have secured a concession of sorts from the Russian leader. In a statement published to his social media platform, the American president said Stephen Hubbard, a 74-year-old retired teacher who had been imprisoned by the Putin government, had been released from detention and was headed home.
在对拜登政府进行了一番毫无意义且无端的抱怨之后，特朗普写道，普京同意释放哈伯德是“出于对”这位美国总统的“尊重”，并补充说美国“没有被要求给予任何回报——这对俄罗斯来说是从未有过的情况。”
After some pointless and gratuitous whining about the Biden administration, Trump wrote that Putin agreed to free Hubbard “out of respect” for the American president, adding that the United States “was not required to give anything in return — an unprecedented situation for Russia.”
仅仅12分钟后，这位共和党人发布了第二条内容，写道：“许多要求立即对俄罗斯实施制裁的人打电话向特朗普总统道歉，因为他们不知道他正在就释放斯蒂芬·哈伯德进行谈判，这对美国来说是一笔真正重大而重要的交易。如果实施了制裁，那些谈判肯定会完全彻底地停止。”撇开这些道歉电话几乎可以肯定在现实中并未发生这一事实不谈，第二条信息明显与第一条相矛盾。
Just 12 minutes later, the Republican published a follow-up item, which read, “Numerous people, who requested that sanctions be immediately imposed on Russia, have called to apologize to President Trump in that they didn’t know that he was negotiating the release of Stephen Hubbard, a truly big and important deal for the U.S. If sanctions would have been placed, certainly those negotiations would have come to a complete and total halt.”Putting aside the fact that those calls of apology almost certainly didn’t happen in reality, the second message clearly contradicted the first.
在声称他的政府无需给予俄罗斯任何东西就能确保哈伯德获释之后，特朗普实际上承认，他不得不放弃对俄罗斯的制裁才能确保哈伯德获释。数小时后，在白宫一场无关的活动中，他又来了一次。
After saying his administration didn’t have to give Russia anything to secure Hubbard’s release, Trump effectively conceded that he had to waive sanctions on Russia in order to secure Hubbard’s release. Hours later, at an unrelated White House event, he did it again.
“我们没有交换任何东西，这非常罕见，”这位美国总统吹嘘道。“我们从不交换任何东西。”片刻之后，他又说，如果他按照最近签署的美国法律的要求对俄罗斯实施制裁，哈伯德“现在就不会出来了，他会在里面再待20年。”特朗普似乎完全没有意识到，声称自己没有做出任何让步——除了他做出的那些让步——两者之间存在明显的矛盾。
“We gave nothing in exchange, which is very rare,” the American president boasted. “We never give anything in exchange.”Moments later, he added that if he had implemented sanctions on Russia, as required by the U.S. law he recently signed, Hubbard “wouldn’t be coming out right now, he’d be in there for another 20 years.”Trump seemed entirely oblivious to the obvious tension between claiming that he made no concessions, except for the concessions he made.
在周三下午与记者的问答环节中，CNN的凯特兰·柯林斯就这一点向他追问，委婉地试图向特朗普解释，根据他自己的说法，他显然为了哈伯德的获释而给了普京一些东西作为回报。
During a Wednesday afternoon Q&A with reporters, CNN’s Kaitlan Collins pressed him on this point, subtly trying to explain to Trump that, based on his own explanation, he obviously did give Putin something in return for Hubbard’s release.
显然，由于这种认知上的矛盾（即自己的言论与实际情况之间存在冲突），特朗普决定通过贬低柯林斯的方式来解决这场争端，他对柯林斯说：“你是个智商低的人，简直是个白痴。”几小时后，俄罗斯再次对乌克兰首都发动攻击，导致1人死亡、22人受伤；此次攻击的目标是平民。就在一天前，俄罗斯还向乌克兰的平民地区发射了导弹和无人机，造成至少4人死亡。
Apparently frustrated by the cognitive dissonance, Trump decided to resolve the dispute by telling Collins, “You’re a low-IQ person. You’re a dummy.”Hours later, Russia launched a new round of attacks on Ukraine’s capital, killing one person and wounding 22, as part of an assault that targeted civilians. A day earlier, Russia also unleashed another missile and drone blitz of civilian areas in Ukraine, killing at least four people.
就在周一，特朗普还对记者表示：“坦率地说，俄罗斯在处理乌克兰问题上表现得相当‘克制’，他们并没有采取太多行动。”白宫至今仍未解释为何这位共和党人的言论总是像是在照本宣科——仿佛这些话是克里姆林宫事先写好的。
As recently as Monday, Trump told reporters, “Russia, frankly, has been fine on Ukraine, they haven’t been doing much.”The White House has not yet explained why the Republican routinely sounds like he’s reading from a script written by the Kremlin.