“買美國貨”行政令照亮鐵鏽帶

This is the kind of place that made America great. It’s a place where bungalows sell for as little as $100,000, complete with azaleas at the door; where American toolmakers still produce Made-in-America tools; and where a big chunk of the population believes Donald Trump really can make America great again.

這裏就是曾經讓美國偉大的地方。在這裏，平房售價低至10萬美元，還附帶門前的杜鵑花叢；在這裏，美國工具製造商還在生產“美國製造”的工具；在這裏，許多人相信唐納德?特朗普(Donald Trump)真的能讓美國再次偉大。

This is Kenosha, Wisconsin, one of a handful of rust belt counties that tilted toward Mr Trump last November, and gave the president his startling victory. And now he’s back in the working-class heart of his America, with his 100th day in office on the horizon, to trumpet his progress toward #MAGA — the gagging Twitter acronym for his most famous campaign mantra: Make America Great Again.

這裏是威斯康辛州的基諾沙(Kenosha)，是去年11月倒戈支持了特朗普、助他意外勝出的幾個鐵繡帶縣之一。現在，就在特朗普上任即將滿百日之際，他再次來到他的美國的工人階級中心，宣揚他在#MAGA上取得的進步——Twitter上一條令人作嘔的話題，是特朗普最著名的競選口號“讓美國再次偉大”的首字母縮寫。

He has come to Snap-on, which designs and makes high-end tools, to slip under the 100-day wire with a new executive order aimed at delivering on the cornerstone promise of his campaign: that places like this — where factories have been closing and livelihoods declining for decades due to globalisation (among other things) — will be rebuilt through the simple credo of “Buy American/Hire American”.

他趕在上任即將滿百日之前，來到了設計並製造高端工具的實耐寶(Snap-on)，簽署一條旨在實現他如下核心競選承諾的新行政命令：幾十年來由於全球化等原因，有一些地方工廠不斷關閉、民生凋敝，如今這些地方將通過“買美國貨，僱美國人”的簡單信條恢復生機。

Hundreds of Snap-on employees — their made-in-Asia smartphones lifted high for shots — watch as he signs the newest in an avalanche of executive orders hastily drawn up to give the appearance of a productive 100 days. Mr Trump promises that this one will ensure foreign workers cannot steal jobs from Americans; and that the government cannot squander taxpayer money on foreign goods.

實耐寶的幾百名員工看着他簽署了這條最新行政令，他們高舉着亞洲製造的智能手機拍下了許多畫面。近期特朗普簽署了一連串匆忙起草的行政令，營造出上任百日業績斐然的樣子。特朗普承諾該行政令將確保外國工人無法偷走美國人的工作，美國政府也無法將納稅人的錢浪費在外國商品上。

“I’ve been thinking what he just said for decades: to finally have someone say we should be buying American products and using American stuff,” Greg Chapman, businessman and Snap-on consultant, pauses to register his delight at the mere thought of it.

實耐寶的顧問、商人格雷格?查普曼(Greg Chapman)表示：“他剛剛說的這些話，我已經在心中想了幾十年：終於有人說我們應該買美國產品、用美國貨。”他頓了一下，以表示他一想到這一點就欣喜不已。

Mr Chapman, who did not vote Trump and would not do so now, still likes this particular message. But he also knows a stump speech when he hears one. “Will anything really change?” he asks.

查理曼並沒有投票給特朗普，而且現在也不會這樣做，但仍然喜歡這條消息。不過他也分辨得出什麼是政治演說。他問：“真的會有任何改變嗎？”

The executive order mandates a review of the procedure for awarding H-1B visas, used by many technology and outsourcing companies to bring in foreign workers, and tougher enforcement of existing America-first government procurement laws. In other words, on its own it changes nothing. But that’s not the way Mr Trump tells it.

這條行政命令要求審查頒發H-1B簽證的程序，許多科技和外包公司利用該程序引進外國員工，該行政令還要求嚴格執行現行的“美國優先”政府採購法律。換言之，它本身沒有改變任何事。但特朗普不是這麼說的。

That’s not the way he tells the jobs story either: he tells it with capital letters on Twitter. Last month, the president claimed credit for a $1.2bn investment by Ford, tweeting “Cars companies coming back to US. JOBS! JOBS! JOBS!” at least an hour before the automaker announced it. And, like almost all his claims about restoring jobs to the US car industry, this investment had nothing to do with him: it was in the works years ago.

關於就業他也不是這樣說的：他在Twitter上用大寫字母昭告天下。上個月，特朗普將福特(Ford) 12億美元投資的功勞據爲己有，在Twitter上發帖稱“車企回到美國了。就業！就業！就業！(Cars companies coming back to US. JOBS! JOBS! JOBS!)”，發帖時間至少是在福特宣佈消息一個小時前。與幾乎所有他宣稱將就業帶回美國汽車行業的事例一樣，這項投資與他毫無關係：該計劃早在幾年前就在制定中了。

But even so, as they reflect on his imminent 100th day, Trump supporters at the Kenosha event are delighted with his progress. “I feel very positive. He’s done a lot of things, they are still working on Obamacare and tax reform, but a lot of things are getting done behind the scenes that people aren’t aware of,” says Erin Decker, chairwoman of Kenosha county’s Republican party.

儘管如此，特朗普上任即將滿百天之際正在反思的特朗普的支持者們，在威斯康星州基諾沙的活動上對他所取得的進步感到高興。基諾沙的共和黨女主席埃琳?德克爾(Erin Decker)表示：“我感到非常滿意。他做了很多事情，奧巴馬醫改和稅制改革的事情他們還在努力，但很多不爲人知的事情正在幕後完成。”

“Trump supporters know that he is doing a good job, he is going to make America great again. Others will see what we mean when he gets it done. I hear stories about how people didn’t take Ronald Reagan seriously as a president at first and look what a great president he turned out to be,” she adds.

她補充稱：“特朗普的支持者知道，他做得不錯，他將讓美國再次變得偉大。當他實現這一點時，其他人會明白我們在說什麼。我聽說，羅納德?里根(Ronald Reagan)剛當上總統時，人們也不把他當一回事，但事實證明他是一位偉大的總統。”

So, while there could be signs of a backlash against the Trump presidency elsewhere, in Kenosha no one is sweating the small stuff. A recent Marquette University poll of Wisconsin voters found that 90 per cent of Republicans have a favourable opinion of Mr Trump, compared with two-thirds in October. Democrats hate him more than ever, but Republicans are keener.

因此，儘管其他地區可能存在針對特朗普擔任總統的反彈，但在基諾沙，沒有人爲這些小事煩惱。最近馬凱特大學(Marquette University)對威斯康星州選民所做的調查發現，有90%的共和黨人對特朗普有好感，去年10月這一比例爲三分之二。民主黨人對他的憎恨超過任何時候，但共和黨人卻更喜歡他了。

Mr Trump knows how to talk the talk of the industrial heartland. And he has a direct line to it, through the twittersphere. Eventually, he’ll have to prove he can walk the rust belt walk too. But to judge from his recent Kenosha event, the president’s 100-days legacy is secure: Trump supporters in middle America seem inclined to give him the benefit of the doubt on making America great again — whatever anyone else thinks.

特朗普知道如何用言語討好這個工業中心地帶。他有直接溝通的渠道：通過Twitter。最終，他必須證明他也能在“鏽帶”說到做到。但從他最近在基諾沙的活動判斷，特朗普就職100天的成果牢牢不可撼動：特朗普在美國中部的支持者似乎願意相信他會讓美國再次變得偉大，不管其他人怎麼想。