Before this Saturday’s enormous nationwide No Kings protests, Leah Greenberg, a founder of Indivisible, one of the groups behind the demonstrations, worried that too many people had lost faith in their collective ability to stop Donald Trump from remaking America in his tawdry autocratic image. Her group realized that they needed “to reverse the sense that Trump is inevitable, that he’s going to win,” she told me.

在上周六全国范围内大规模的“不要国王”抗议活动之前，其背后的组织之一“不可分割”的创始人利亚·格林伯格曾担心，太多人已经对他们集体行动的能力失去了信心，认为他们无法阻止特朗普以他庸俗的独裁形象重塑美国。她告诉我，她的团队意识到，他们需要“扭转那种认为特朗普不可避免的、一定会赢的感觉”。

When Trump first took office in 2017, it seemed to much of the country a shocking fluke caused by the democratically dubious Electoral College, and his stunned opponents rose up in furious rejection. Trump’s inauguration weekend set the tone for the years to follow: Turnout at the event itself was underwhelming, while millions of impassioned people attended the Women’s March, at the time the biggest single-day protest in American history. The energy of the resistance was so strong it reached into Trump’s own administration, where several officials devoted themselves to trying to curb his worst excesses.

当特朗普在2017年首次上任时，在美国很多人看来，这似乎是民主性存疑的选举团制度造成的惊人侥幸，反对者们目瞪口呆，奋起怒斥他。那一次，特朗普的就职典礼周末为接下来的几年定下了基调：就职典礼本身的到场人数平平，然而数百万人参加了群情激昂的女性大游行，在当时是美国历史上规模最大的单日抗议活动。抵制的力量如此强大，甚至影响到了特朗普自己的政府——几名政府官员致力于遏制他最恶劣的行为。

This time around, there’s less hope and more resignation. In the last election Trump won the popular vote, and most demographics shifted rightward. The resistance has seemed exhausted and demoralized, and leaders in business, law and academia have adjusted accordingly. “One of the dominant differences between 2017 and 2025 is the degree of elite collapse in particular,” said Greenberg. “People who have power in different institutions that have some role in upholding democracy overwhelmingly, from November on, have been operating to secure their own safety and position under the Trump administration.”

这一次，希望少了，无奈多了。特朗普在大选中赢得了普选，大多数人向右倾斜。抵抗力量似乎已经筋疲力尽，士气低落，商界、法律界和学术界的领袖们也做出了相应的调整。“2017年和2025年的主要区别之一是精英阶层的崩溃程度，”格林伯格说。“从11月开始，绝大多数在不同机构中拥有权力、对维护民主有一定作用的人都在为确保自己在特朗普政府下的安全和地位而运作。”

Tech barons lined up to kiss the ring at Trump’s swearing-in. In response to Trump’s flimsy lawsuits, media conglomerates offered millions in what seemed like protection money. Law firms and college presidents buckled.

科技大亨在特朗普的宣誓就职仪式上排队臣服。为了回应特朗普不堪一击的诉讼，媒体集团拿出了数百万美元，看上去就是在交保护费。律师事务所和大学校长都屈服了。

Such acquiescence, Greenberg thought, was rational if people assumed that Trumpism would triumph. The No Kings protests, held on the same day that Trump was hosting a military parade in Washington, were meant to challenge that assumption. They succeeded, with Trump’s help.

格林伯格认为，如果人们认为特朗普主义会取得胜利，这种默许就是合理的。在特朗普在华盛顿举行阅兵式的同一天举行的“不要国王”抗议活动意在挑战这种假设。在特朗普的帮助下，他们成功了。

There were protests in over 2,100 cities and towns, from New York and Los Angeles to tiny hamlets in Alaska. Trump almost certainly helped juice attendance by sending the military into Los Angeles; as Greenberg told me, about 500 of the events were organized just in the last week. The data journalist G. Elliott Morris estimated that four million to six million people turned out, which would make No Kings the largest day of protest America has ever seen. Even if his figures are inflated, the day left little question that the resistance to Trump has been reawakened.

从纽约、洛杉矶到阿拉斯加的小村庄，2100多个城镇发生了抗议活动。特朗普派遣军队进入洛杉矶，几乎肯定有助于增加抗议人数；正如格林伯格告诉我的那样，仅在上周就组织了大约500场活动。数据记者埃利奥特·莫里斯估计，有400万至600万人参加了抗议活动，这将使“不要国王”运动成为美国有史以来规模最大的单日抗议活动。即使他的数据有所夸大，这一天也毫无疑问地表明，对特朗普的抵制已经被重新唤醒。

The crowds in big cities were, unsurprisingly, huge, but local news outlets also reported thousands of people protesting in places like Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, and in the Villages, the famously conservative Florida retirement community.

大城市的抗议人群之多不足为奇，但当地新闻媒体也报道了爱达荷州科达伦和佛罗里达州著名的保守派退休社区威利奇斯等地，有数千人参加抗议活动。

But what really made No Kings feel like a potential turning point was the juxtaposition with Trump’s anemic parade in Washington, which fell on his birthday, though it was ostensibly held to celebrate the Army’s 250th anniversary. Videos showed tanks squeaking down the street in front of viewing stands that were more than half empty. The Wall Street Journal, no left-wing rag, described the crowd as “sparse” and “subdued.” A display that was meant to be bombastic and menacing instead looked pathetic.

然而真正让“不要国王”运动成为一个潜在转折点的是，它与特朗普在华盛顿的那场无精打采的阅兵分庭抗礼。虽然表面上是为了庆祝建军250周年，阅兵式恰逢特朗普生日。视频显示坦克在看台前的街道上吱吱作响，观礼台上空了一半以上。非左翼报纸《华尔街日报》形容人群“稀疏”“压抑”。一场本应轰轰烈烈、气势汹汹的展示反而显得很可悲。

The contrast between the protests and the parade reflects a larger political reality. Trump returned to office much stronger than he’d been in his first term, but Americans seem to be remembering why they disliked him. A Quinnipiac poll from last week had his approval rating at 38 percent. In a survey conducted last Tuesday by The Washington Post and George Mason University’s Schar School, only 37 percent of respondents approved of the president’s handling of immigration enforcement. Some politicians and pundits assumed that Trump would benefit from deploying soldiers to Los Angeles, imagining that voters would see him as tough and decisive. So far, there’s little evidence of that.

抗议和游行之间的反差反映了一个更大的政治现实。特朗普再次上台时比他第一个任期时更加强势，但美国人似乎又记起了当初不喜欢他的原因。昆尼皮亚克大学上周的一项民意调查显示，他的支持率为38%。《华盛顿邮报》和乔治梅森大学沙尔学院上周二进行的一项调查显示，只有37%的受访者支持总统对移民执法的处理。一些政界人士和专家认为，向洛杉矶部署士兵会让特朗普受益，并想象选民会认为他强硬果断。然而到目前为止，几乎没有证据表明这一点。

Now Trump seems determined to heighten the cruelty and chaos that are repelling so many Americans. In response to complaints from farmers and owners of hotels and restaurants, his administration ordered Immigration and Customs Enforcement to suspend many workplace raids. But to keep his mass deportation project alive — while punishing his political enemies — he’s ordered ICE to redouble its focus on big American cities, calling them, on his website Truth Social, the “core of the Democrat Power Center, where they use Illegal Aliens to expand their Voter Base, cheat in Elections, and grow the Welfare State.” He’s seeking a nakedly political crackdown on urban America, designed to create more furious confrontations like those in Los Angeles.

现在，特朗普似乎决心要加剧令许多美国人反感的残酷和混乱。为了回应农民、酒店和餐馆老板的不满，他的政府命令移民和海关执法局暂停对许多工作场所的突击搜查。但为了让他的大规模驱逐计划继续下去，同时惩罚他的政敌，他命令执法局将重点放在大城市，在他的网站Truth Social上，他称这些城市是“民主党权力中心的核心，他们利用非法移民扩大票仓，在选举中作弊，并发展福利国家”。他正在寻求对美国城市进行赤裸裸的政治镇压，旨在制造更多像洛杉矶那样的激烈对抗。

Indeed, the more he feels his position weakening, the more he’s likely to lash out. This dynamic is terrible for the country, but it might also end up being bad for him. Trump will keep trying to tear this increasingly fragile and beleaguered nation apart. But as Saturday showed, if and when he does so, he may not end up with the biggest piece.

事实上，越是感到自己的地位受到削弱，他就越有可能猛烈出击。这种趋势对这个国家来说是可怕的，但最终也可能对他不利。特朗普将继续试图撕裂这个日益脆弱和陷入困境的国家。但正如周六所显示的那样，如果他这么做了，他最终可能不会获得大多数的支持。