With this presidential election seemingly a jump ball, what might American democracy and the world look like if Donald Trump is again elected president?

这次总统选举看起来什么都有可能发生，如果特朗普再次当选总统，美国的民主以及世界将会变成什么样子？

I think it’s hyperbole to suggest, as Hillary Clinton did, that a Trump election would be “the end of our country as we know it.” I don’t think that Trump could turn the United States into a dictatorship.

希拉里·克林顿说，特朗普当选的话“国家就要完蛋了”，我认为这种说法太夸张。我并不认为特朗普能将美国变成一个独裁国家。

That said, in the course of four decades of covering the world, I’ve repeatedly seen charismatic leaders win democratic elections and then undermine those democracies. The populist left did that in Venezuela, Mexico and El Salvador, and the populist right did it in Hungary, India and Poland (Poland managed to claw its way back). In his lust for power, willingness to ignore democratic norms and eagerness to glorify himself and suppress opposition, Trump reminds me of those leaders.

话虽如此，在我40年的世界新闻报道中，我一再看到魅力型领导人赢得民主选举，然后破坏这些民主。左翼民粹主义者在委内瑞拉、墨西哥和萨尔瓦多做到了这一点，而右翼民粹主义则在匈牙利、印度和波兰做到了这一点（在波兰是卷土重来）。特朗普垂涎权力，愿意无视民主规范，渴望美化自己、压制反对派，这都让我想起了那些领导人。

“He is the most dangerous person to this country,” Mark Milley, the former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told Bob Woodward.

“他是这个国家最危险的人，”前参谋长联席会议主席马克·米利对鲍勃·伍德沃德说。

It’s not that Trump would declare himself dictator for life, but he has already adopted the standard strongman approach of trying to weaponize the legal system to punish and intimidate critics. When he was president, he proposed prosecuting Clinton and did force a criminal investigation into former Secretary of State John Kerry.

特朗普并不会自封为终身独裁者，但他已经采取了强人政治的标准做法，试图利用法律系统来惩罚和恐吓批评者。在担任总统期间，他曾提议起诉希拉里，并确实强行对前国务卿约翰·克里进行了一项刑事调查。

“Sometimes revenge can be justified,” Trump said in June.

“有时候，报复是合理的，”特朗普在6月这样说。

It’s worth noting that his efforts to prosecute Clinton and Kerry didn’t succeed, and American democracy survived his first term largely unscathed. Democratic institutions are stronger in the United States than in Hungary or Venezuela, and our system is less vulnerable.

值得注意的是，他起诉希拉里和克里的努力没有成功，美国民主在他的第一个任期内基本上毫发无损。我们的民主制度比匈牙利或委内瑞拉的更强大，体制也不是那么脆弱。

It’s also true that in his first term, Trump’s autocratic inclinations were frustrated by incompetence and by frantic efforts by his own aides to impede him. What would be different in a second term is that he is better prepared and seems ready to bring in like-minded aides who would empower his antidemocratic efforts.

同样，在他的第一个任期内，特朗普的专制倾向因自己的无能和助手的疯狂阻挠而受挫。第二个任期的不同之处在于，他的准备更充分了，似乎准备好引入志同道合的助手，这为他的反民主努力提供支持。

I’ve seen in many other countries how threats and revenge can intimidate the business community and civil society into grudging acquiescence. When Trump was in office, his administration reportedly took steps to hurt Jeff Bezos and his corporate interests, possibly costing him a $10 billion military contract for cloud computing. That may explain Bezos’ decision to withhold an endorsement in the presidential election by The Washington Post, which he owns.

我在许多其他国家看到过威胁和报复是如何恐吓商界和公民社会、迫使他们勉强顺从的。据报道，特朗普任内，他的政府采取措施损害杰夫·贝佐斯和他的企业利益，可能导致后者失去了一份价值100亿美元的云计算军事合同。这或许可以解释贝佐斯为何决定他拥有的《华盛顿邮报》在总统选举中不作背书。

When I was The Times’s bureau chief in Beijing many years ago and wrote tough articles about China’s prime minister, the Chinese government responded by aggressively auditing my taxes. So it felt familiar to learn that Trump told aides to use the I.R.S. to audit the taxes of his critics or those who wouldn’t do his bidding, like James Comey and Andrew McCabe of the F.B.I.

多年前，在我担任时报驻北京分社社长时写过一些关于中国总理的尖锐文章，作为回应，中国政府对我的纳税情况进行了严格审计。所以，当我得知特朗普指示助手利用国税局对他的批评者或那些不愿意听从其指挥的人（如联邦调查局的詹姆斯·科米和安德鲁·麦凯布）进行审计时，感觉十分熟悉。

Aides initially resisted, but Comey and McCabe were later selected — supposedly randomly — for audits. Trump said he knew nothing about this, but his denials also felt straight out of the Chinese playbook. Officials in China would tell reporters things that we all knew were false not to persuade anyone but to confuse the issue or to establish the party line for followers to echo.

他的手下起初拒绝这么做，但科米和麦凯布后来还是被选中——号称是随机选择——接受审计。特朗普表示，他对此一无所知，但他的否认也让我想起中国政府的做法。中国的官员会告诉记者一些大家都知道是假的事情，这么做不是为了说服任何人，而是混淆问题或确立党的路线，让追随者附和。

The first time I met Trump as a politician, he made absurd claims and then denied ever making them — and I felt I was transported back into meetings with Chinese officials whose relationship with truth and reality was not just casual but largely coincidental.

我第一次见到从政后的特朗普时，他提出了一些荒谬的主张，然后又否认说过这些话——我感觉自己仿佛又回到了与中国官员的碰面中，他们与真相和现实的关系不仅是随意的，甚至在很大程度上是偶然性的。

The First Amendment is long established in the United States, and it will survive. But Trump can undermine the free press by bullying corporate owners. After all, about a year ago, he called for NBC’s corporate owners to be investigated for treason because of the network’s coverage, and he suggested recently that ABC News should be punished for the way it managed the presidential debate.

第一修正案在美国建立已久，它将继续存在。但特朗普可以通过欺凌企业所有者来破坏新闻自由。毕竟，大约一年前，他曾说NBC的所有者应该因这家电视台的报道而接受叛国罪调查。最近他还建议，ABC应该为其对总统辩论的处理方式而受到惩罚。

“They’re a news organization,” he said of ABC News. “They have to be licensed to do it. They ought to take away their license.” Later he called for CBS to lose its license as well and said that “60 Minutes” “should be taken off the air, frankly.” National news organizations don’t actually need licenses, but their local affiliate TV stations do.

“他们是新闻机构，”他这样评价ABC新闻。“他们必须获得许可才能这样做。他们应该被吊销执照。”后来，他还呼吁吊销CBS的执照，并表示《60分钟》节目“坦率地讲，应该停播”。国家新闻机构实际上并不需要执照，但它们下属的地方电视台是需要的。

Trump has repeatedly called for changing libel laws to reduce protections for news organizations. Two years ago he called for imprisoning journalists who don’t reveal sources in national security cases and added gleefully that the prospect of prison rape would make journalists ready to give up sources. (I believe journalists are made of sterner stuff, and I’ve seen that in the raw courage of reporters risking their lives in autocracies like Russia.)

特朗普多次呼吁修改诽谤法，以减少对新闻机构的保护。两年前，他呼吁监禁在国家安全案件中不透露消息来源的记者，并兴高采烈地补充说，在监狱里遭到强奸的可能性会让记者愿意交代消息来源。（我相信记者的意志更为坚定，我在那些在俄罗斯等专制国家冒着生命危险的记者身上看到了这一点。）

Just as alarming is Trump’s suggestion that he would use the armed forces against U.S. citizens. In October he suggested that the National Guard or military be deployed in America against “the enemy from within,” including “radical left lunatics.”

同样令人担忧的是，特朗普暗示他会动用武装部队对付美国公民。10月，他建议在美国部署国民警卫队或军队，打击“来自内部的敌人”，包括“激进的左翼疯子”。

That kind of language may encourage more political violence of the type we already saw on Jan. 6. Trump seemed to acknowledge the risk in his April Time magazine interview, when he was asked about the possibility of post-election violence. “If we don’t win, you know, it depends,” he said ominously. “It always depends on the fairness of an election.”

这种语言可能会鼓励更多我们在1月6日已经看到的那种政治暴力。特朗普在4月接受《时代》杂志采访时被问及选举后可能出现的暴力，他似乎承认了这种风险的存在。“如果我们赢不了，你知道，这要看情况，”他险恶地说。“这总是取决于选举的公正性。”

Spare a moment as well to contemplate what a Trump election might mean internationally.

不妨花点时间思考一下，特朗普当选可能对国际局势产生什么影响。

If Trump had been re-elected in 2020, Russian forces might now be in Kyiv, for Trump could never have mustered the international coalition and rounded up the assistance to keep Russia at bay (even if he had wanted to). Ukraine would probably have collapsed, Russia might have moved on to Moldova or Latvia, and NATO might well be an empty shell. Observing the fecklessness of the West, China would probably be more aggressive toward Taiwan and the South China Sea, so war might be more likely in Asia.

如果特朗普在2020年再次当选，俄罗斯军队现在可能已经进入了基辅，因为特朗普根本不可能召集国际联盟，并获得援助来阻止俄罗斯（即使他想这样做）。乌克兰可能已经崩溃，俄罗斯可能会转向摩尔多瓦或拉脱维亚，而北约很可能已经成为了一个空壳。观察到西方的软弱为力，中国可能会在台湾和南海问题上更加咄咄逼人，因此亚洲发生战事的可能性更大了。

Trump presents himself as a strongman, but my sense from conversations with foreign officials and business leaders is that what he actually projects is weakness. He would damage the Atlantic alliance and threaten the network of countries that Joe Biden has knit together to restrain China, and he seems to discount the challenges from Moscow and Beijing.

特朗普以强人自居，但在我与外国官员、商界领袖的对话中，我感觉到他实际上展现的是一种虚弱。他会损害大西洋联盟，并威胁到拜登为遏制中国而建成的国家网络，他似乎低估了来自莫斯科和北京的挑战。

Just last month, Trump described some of his American critics as “scum” and “a bigger enemy than China and Russia.” Perhaps that’s why Russia is interfering in the U.S. election with the apparent aim of helping Trump.

就在上个月，特朗普将一些批评他的美国人称为“人渣”，是“比中国和俄罗斯更大的敌人”。也许这就是为什么俄罗斯干预美国大选的原因，显然是为了帮助特朗普。

Similarly, some Chinese people joke that Trump’s Chinese name is Chuan Jianguo, or Build-the-Country Trump — meaning that for all Trump’s anti-China rhetoric, his chaotic approach and disregard for allies make China stronger.

同样，一些中国人开玩笑说，特朗普的中文名字是“川建国”，意思是尽管特朗普口口声声反对中国，但他的混乱做法和对盟友的无视使中国变得更强大。

Trump has little interest in foreign wars, but he can be reckless and inclined to escalate; the upshot is that early in his presidency we came “much closer than anyone would know” to war with North Korea, in Trump’s own words to Woodward. His defense secretary, James Mattis, was so worried that he slept in gym clothes for a time and installed a flashing light in his bathroom to alert him to a crisis if he happened to be showering.

特朗普对外战兴趣不大，但他可能会鲁莽行事，并倾向于升级；其结果就是，在他总统任期的早期，正如特朗普自己对伍德沃德所说，其实“大家都不知道我们”距离与朝鲜开战“有多近”。他的国防部长詹姆斯·马蒂斯曾如此担忧，以至于一度穿着运动服睡觉，并在浴室安装了一个闪灯，以便在他碰巧洗澡时通知他危机爆发。

None of us knows how events will unfold, and Trump would not achieve all his aims. Two years ago, he urged the “termination” of the Constitution, and that won’t happen. When he was in office and a federal circuit court blocked one of his programs, he told an aide to “cancel” the court — it didn’t work then, and it won’t next year.

我们谁都不知道事态将如何发展，而且特朗普也不会实现他的所有目标。两年前，他呼吁“终止”宪法，但那不会发生。当他在任时，联邦巡回法院阻止了他的一个计划，他要一名助手去“取消”这家法院——当时没有奏效，明年也不会。

But could Trump make the United States less democratic and make the world far more dangerous? Absolutely. We would be gambling with our future.

但特朗普是否会让美国变得不是那么民主，并使世界变得更加危险吗？绝对会。我们是在拿未来赌博。