It was a sickening spectacle: the man who tried to upend democracy bullying the man who is fighting for democracy.

这是一个令人作呕的景象：一个试图颠覆民主的人，霸凌一个为民主而战的人。

The air seemed to turn flame red as the TV stars-turned-pols sat side by side in elegant yellow armchairs and had the wildest dust-up ever televised from the Oval Office.

在椭圆形办公室，两位电视明星出身的政治人物并排坐在优雅的黄色扶手椅上，上演了有史以来最疯狂的电视转播争吵，空气似乎都变得火烫。

“This is going to be great television — I will say that,” President Trump noted. The Ukrainian ambassador, Oksana Markarova, hung her head in her hands.

“这会是一场精彩的电视秀，”特朗普说。乌克兰大使奥克萨娜·马尔卡洛娃双手抱头。

It looked like a setup. Vice President JD Vance, a malign presence who has said he does not care a fig about Ukraine, chided Volodymyr Zelensky for not being grateful enough to America, i.e. Trump.

这看起来像是一个做好的局。扮黑脸的副总统JD·万斯曾说自己对乌克兰一点也不关心，他指责泽连斯基对美国——也就是对特朗普——缺乏感恩。

“Have you said, ‘Thank you’ once this entire meeting?” Vance pressed Zelensky, who has thanked America over and over.

“这整场会面到现在，你说过一次‘谢谢’吗？”万斯追问着曾一次又一次感谢美国的泽连斯基。

Trump barked at Zelensky, “You’re gambling with World War III” and wagged a finger at him: “You’ve got to be more thankful because, let me tell you, you don’t have the cards. With us, you have the cards, but without us, you don’t have any cards.”

特朗普气冲冲地对泽连斯基说，“你是在拿第三次世界大战作赌注”，并对泽连斯基摇了摇手指：“你应该更感恩，因为，让我告诉你，你手里没有牌。有了我们，你们才有牌，但是没有我们，你们就没有牌了。”

Pretty rich for a draft dodger to lecture a man whose name has become synonymous with wartime bravery. (Trump once said that avoiding sexually transmitted diseases was his personal “Vietnam.”)

一个曾经逃避兵役的人，教训一个已经成为英勇应战的代名词的人，这真是太荒唐了。（特朗普曾说，避免性传播疾病是他个人的“越战”。）

When a reporter asked what would happen if Russia broke the cease-fire again, Trump snapped, “What if anything? What if a bomb drops on your head right now?”

当一名记者问到，如果俄罗斯再次破坏停火协议将会发生什么，特朗普厉声说道：“如果什么？如果现在有一颗炸弹掉在你头上怎么办？”

The bust of Churchill so beloved by Trump watched over the three men as they sparred. Can you imagine F.D.R. petulantly ordering Churchill to be more thankful? Can you imagine Churchill’s chilly disdain for Trump’s protection-racket demand for Ukraine’s minerals?

在他们争吵的时候，特朗普非常喜爱的丘吉尔半身像正注视着他们。你能想象罗斯福耍性子地命令丘吉尔多感恩吗？对于特朗普索要乌克兰矿产的黑帮保护费式需求，你能想象换了丘吉尔会报以什么样的冰冷蔑视吗？

As though this weren’t enough humiliation, a member of the president’s new handpicked press pool, Brian Glenn of the right-wing Real America’s Voice, asked Zelensky, “Why don’t you wear a suit?” And then, “Do you own a suit?”

似乎这样的羞辱还不够，总统精心挑选的新记者之一、右翼媒体“真实美国之声”的布莱恩·格伦问泽连斯基：“你为什么不穿正装？”然后又问，“你有正装吗？”

(He was echoing Trump, who mocked Zelensky when he arrived, saying “Ooh, you’re all dressed up.” The Ukrainian president had on black pants, top and boots, similar to what Elon Musk wears at the White House.)

（他是在附和特朗普的话，特朗普在泽伦斯基到达时嘲笑他说：“哦，你穿得这么隆重。”——乌克兰总统穿着黑色裤子、黑色上衣和靴子，和埃隆·马斯克在白宫穿的衣服很像。）

Even though we should be used to it by now, it was still shocking to see Trump parrot the view of Vladimir Putin, a murderous tyrant who wants to swallow Ukraine in a fit of nostalgia for the Soviet Union. Trump insisted that they were fellow victims.

尽管我们现在应该已经习惯了，但是看到特朗普鹦鹉学舌地转述普京的观点，仍然令人震惊。普京是一个凶残的暴君，出于对苏联的怀念，他想吞并乌克兰。而特朗普坚称他俩都是受害者。

“Let me tell you, Putin went through a hell of a lot with me,” Trump said, as though they were Army buddies. “He went through a phony witch hunt where they used him and Russia, Russia, Russia, Russia.” U.S. intelligence agencies found that Russia meddled in the 2016 election on Trump’s behalf.

“让我告诉你，普京和我一起经历了很多，”特朗普说，就好像他们是军队里的老伙计一样。“他经历了一场虚假的政治迫害，他们利用了他，不停地俄罗斯、俄罗斯、俄罗斯、俄罗斯。”——美国情报机构发现，俄罗斯站在有利于特朗普的角度干预了2016年的大选。

“You see the hatred he’s got for Putin,” Trump said of Zelensky. “It’s very tough for me to make a deal with that kind of hate.”

“你们看到了他对普京的仇恨，”特朗普在谈到泽连斯基时说。“面对这种仇恨，我很难达成协议。”

The president doesn’t understand why Zelensky is not happy with Putin for invading the smaller country and beating the bejesus out of it, for decimating a generation of young Ukrainian soldiers, for breaking cease-fires and committing war crimes.

普京入侵乌克兰这个小国，将其百般蹂躏，屠杀了一代年轻的乌克兰士兵，破坏停火并犯下战争罪行，总统不明白泽连斯基为什么对此感到不满。

Zelensky deserves our thanks. He has endured so much, keeping the David versus Goliath dream alive, exposing the weakness of the Russian military and basically taking it on the chin for the rest of Europe to keep Putin from gobbling up more territory.

泽连斯基值得我们的感谢。他承受了这么多，让大卫对抗歌利亚的梦想得以延续，暴露了俄罗斯军队的弱点，实际上是替全欧洲挨了一拳，以阻止普京吞噬更多的领土。

But instead of being gracious, Trump booted Zelensky out of the White House, leaving the hero’s lunch on a tray in the hall, torpedoing his existential fight to save his battered country and Ukrainian lives.

但特朗普非但没有以礼相待，反而把泽连斯基赶出了白宫，把这位英雄的午餐留在大厅里的托盘上，彻底破坏了他为拯救自己饱受摧残的国家和乌克兰人的生命而进行的生存斗争。

Republican lickspittles like Lindsey Graham and Jim Banks praised Trump and trashed Zelensky while Russian leaders rejoiced. “The insolent pig finally got a proper slap down in the Oval Office,” said Dmitri Medvedev, the former Russian president and Putin toady.

林赛·格雷厄姆和吉姆·班克斯等共和党马屁虫赞扬特朗普，抨击泽连斯基，而俄罗斯领导人则欢欣鼓舞。俄罗斯前总统、普京的走狗梅德韦杰夫表示：“这头傲慢的猪终于在椭圆形办公室得到了应有的惩罚。”

A cascade of gobsmacked Western leaders wrapped Zelensky in a warm online embrace. “Today, it became clear that the free world needs a new leader,” said Kaja Kallas, the European Union’s top diplomat. France’s president, Emmanuel Macron, posted, “Il y a un agresseur: la Russie.”

目瞪口呆的西方领导人们在网上热情支持泽连斯基。“今天，很明显，自由世界需要一位新的领导人，”欧盟最高外交官卡贾·卡拉斯说。法国总统马克龙发帖称，“Il y a un agresseur: la Russie”（侵略者只有一个：俄罗斯。）

European leaders had tried to guide Trump in the days before Zelensky arrived, but Trump is wedded to his demented dream of a troika of strongmen — himself, Putin and Xi Jinping — astride the world.

在泽连斯基抵达前几天，欧洲领导人试图引导特朗普，但特朗普却执着于他的强人三驾马车——他本人、普京和习近平——凌驾于世界之上的癫狂梦想。

Macron and Prime Minister Keir Starmer of Britain came to Washington, humoring Trump. Starmer grandly delivered a cream envelope with an “unprecedented” invitation from King Charles III for a second state visit, perhaps to Balmoral.

马克龙和英国首相斯塔默来到华盛顿，对特朗普示好。斯塔默隆重地递上了一个奶油色信封，里面是国王查尔斯三世“前所未有”的邀请函，邀请他进行第二次国事访问，地点可能是巴尔莫勒尔。

A real king soothing the ego of a hooligan who thinks he’s a king.

一个真正的国王在安抚一个自以为是国王的流氓的自尊心。

All the flattery did not soften up Trump. It puffed him up. Everyone is so obsequious around Trump that he now gets huffy at the least pushback. He can make any claim, no matter how outrageous — that Ukraine started the war with Russia, that Zelensky is a “dictator.” But if anyone points out that he is wrong, he blows a gasket.

所有的奉承都没能让特朗普软化，还让他得意起来。特朗普身边的每个人都对他唯唯诺诺，以至于他现在只要受到一点反击都很生气。他可以提出任何主张，无论多么离谱——是乌克兰挑起了与俄罗斯的战争，泽连斯基是“独裁者”。但如果有人指出他错了，他就会大发雷霆。

After Trump flew off to Mar-a-Lago, Zelensky did an interview with Bret Baier on Fox News. He did not apologize when Baier asked him if he should. “I can’t, you know, change our Ukrainian attitude to Russia,” he said, adding that Putin wants to “kill us.”

特朗普飞往马阿拉歌后，泽伦斯基接受了福克斯新闻布雷特·拜尔的采访。拜尔问他是否应该道歉时，他没有道歉。“你知道，我不能改变我们乌克兰对俄罗斯的态度，”他说，并补充说，普京想要“杀死我们”。

He said the meeting came a cropper because he talked honestly about the need for security guarantees. “We just want to recognize the reality, the real situation.” He added that everybody is “afraid that Putin will come back tomorrow.”

他说，这次会晤失败了，是因为他诚实地谈到了安全保障的必要性。“我们只是想认清现实，认清真实的情况。”他补充说，每个人都“担心普京明天会回来”。

Trump does not do well with reality; he tries to impose his own on the rest of us.

特朗普不善于面对现实；他想把自己的想法强加给我们其他人。

Zelensky said that Trump told him he wanted to be in “the middle” of the negotiations. But the Ukrainian president demurred: “I want really him to be more at our side” because “the war began when Russia brought this war to our country.” About Ukrainians, he said: “They just want to hear that America on our side and America will stay with us, not with Russians.”

泽连斯基说，特朗普告诉他，他想在谈判中站在一个“中间”的位置。但乌克兰总统表示反对：“我真的希望他更多站在我们这边，”因为“这场战争是从俄罗斯把战火带到我们国家的时候开始的”。关于乌克兰人，他说：“他们只想听到美国在我们这一边，美国将和我们站在一起，而不是和俄罗斯站在一起。”

Seems simple. Unless Trump’s art of the deal is all about truckling to Putin.

这似乎很简单。除非特朗普交易的艺术就是对普京卑躬屈膝。