“美國優(yōu)先”的忠實擁躉烏紗難保？

You would never know it from the way Donald Trump is treating him, but attorney-general Jeff Sessions has been a loyal proponent of the president’s “America First” agenda on immigration and crime.

從唐納德•特朗普(Donald Trump)對待司法部長杰夫•塞申斯(Jeff Sessions，見上圖)的方式，你可能永遠也想不到，塞申斯一直是總統(tǒng)在移民和犯罪等問題上“美國優(yōu)先”政策的忠實擁躉。

He has ordered all 94 US attorneys to prioritise criminal prosecutions for immigration violations and championed tougher sentences for violent criminals while vowing to “wholeheartedly join in the priorities of President Trump.”

塞申斯已命令全國的94名聯(lián)邦檢察官優(yōu)先處理違反移民法規(guī)的刑事訴訟案，并主張對暴力罪犯處以更嚴厲的刑罰，同時鄭重承諾“全力配合執(zhí)行特朗普總統(tǒng)重視的那些事項”。

Mr Sessions, who early last year gave Mr Trump critical support as the first US senator to endorse his White House bid, may have expected a presidential “thank you”. Instead, Mr Trump in recent days has repaid the attorney-general’s loyalty by assailing him publicly as “beleaguered’ and “weak” and saying that he regretted his hiring.

早在去年年初，塞申斯是第一位支持特朗普競選總統(tǒng)的美國參議員，為特朗普進軍白宮提供了關(guān)鍵的支持。他可能原本曾期望總統(tǒng)會對他說聲“謝謝”。但事與愿違，最近幾天，特朗普對效忠于他的這位司法部長以怨報德，公開抨擊他，說他是“飽受批評”和“軟弱”的，并表示后悔讓他加入內(nèi)閣。

“I’m very disappointed with the attorney-general, but we will see what happens,” Mr Trump said on Tuesday in a Rose Garden press conference. “Time will tell. Time will tell.”

“我對司法部長非常失望，但我們會走著瞧。” 特朗普不久前在白宮玫瑰園舉行的新聞發(fā)布會上說，“時間會證明一切。”

The public humiliation stirred concerns among Republicans, including Mr Sessions’ former Senate colleagues, and raised questions about the president’s ability to attract professionals for hundreds of vacant government jobs. Mr Sessions appears to have earned little job security, despite his enthusiastic labours on Mr Trump’s behalf.

公開羞辱內(nèi)閣成員引起了共和黨人的關(guān)切，其中包括塞申斯的前參議院同僚，同時，也引發(fā)外界質(zhì)疑特朗普是否有能力吸引專業(yè)人士來填補數(shù)百個政府職位空缺。為了總統(tǒng)特朗普，塞申斯可謂鞍前馬后、盡心盡力，但這似乎并沒有換來他在司法部長這個位置上的高枕無憂。

“The most loyal dog in Trump's kennel gets the most savage whipping,” Rick Wilson, a Republican political consultant, said on Twitter.

“特朗普的狗窩里最忠誠的那條狗遭到了最野蠻的鞭打”，共和黨政治顧問里克•威爾遜(Rick Wilson)在推特(Twitter)上表示。

The president remains angry over Mr Sessions’ decision in March to recuse himself from the investigation into alleged ties between Russia and the Trump campaign. As special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe expanded in recent weeks to include Mr Trump’s financial affairs, the presidential ire only deepened.

塞申斯于3月份宣布回避特朗普競選團隊的“通俄門”調(diào)查，總統(tǒng)對此仍然耿耿于懷。隨著特別檢察官羅伯特•米勒(Robert Mueller)最近幾周將調(diào)查范圍擴大到特朗普的生意和財務(wù)往來，總統(tǒng)對塞申斯的憤怒是有增無減。

Top Republicans this week faced questions about Mr Trump’s reported desire to replace Mr Sessions with a new attorney-general who could dismiss the special counsel, a move Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer warns would trigger a “cataclysm.”

共和黨高層面對的問題是，有媒體報道稱，特朗普有意任命新的司法部長來取代塞申斯，新部長可以將特別檢察官解職。參議院民主黨領(lǐng)袖查克•舒默(Chuck Schumer)警告說，此舉可能會引發(fā)一場“災(zāi)難”。

By a margin of 48 per cent to 22 per cent, voters in a Politico/Morning Consult poll say it would be inappropriate for the president to fire Mr Mueller. But on Wednesday, Corey Lewandowski, Mr Trump’s former campaign manager, told ABC: “The president has a legal authority to fire Robert Mueller if he wants to.”

Politico和Morning Consult最近的一項聯(lián)合調(diào)查顯示，48%的受訪者認為總統(tǒng)將特別檢察官撤職是不恰當?shù)模?2%的受訪者支持總統(tǒng)這么做。但曾擔任特朗普競選經(jīng)理的科里•萊萬多夫斯基(Corey Lewandowski)不久前對美國廣播公司(ABC)說：“如果總統(tǒng)愿意，他有合法的權(quán)力來解除羅伯特•米勒的職務(wù)”。

Mr Sessions’ predicament illustrates that Mr Trump’s top priority is his personal standing rather than government policy, says Matt Miller, a former DoJ spokesman in the Obama administration. “It shows that Trump demands one thing: loyalty to him above all else, above the rule of law, above everything,” he said.

塞申斯先生的窘境表明，特朗普最優(yōu)先考慮的是他個人的地位，而不是政府政策，曾任奧巴馬政府司法部(DoJ)發(fā)言人的馬特•米勒(Matt Miller)說。“這一切表明，特朗普的要求只有一個：將對他的忠誠置于對法治和其他一切的忠誠之上，”他說。

Yet even as Mr Trump insults the attorney-general on Twitter and dispatches aides to publicly ruminate about his status, Mr Sessions is unlikely to quit.

然而，即使特朗普在推特上羞辱這位司法部長，并派助手公開討論他的位子，塞申斯也不太可能辭職。

For much of his 20-year Senate tenure, Mr Sessions was respected by his colleagues for his courtesy and good humour, but he wielded little power. Now, the former federal prosecutor occupies his dream job. Running the justice department is “beyond any thought I would have ever had for myself,” Mr Sessions told reporters last week.

在擔任參議員的二十年間，塞申斯多數(shù)時間因禮貌和好脾氣受到同事們的尊重，但他沒掌握什么權(quán)力。現(xiàn)在，這位前聯(lián)邦檢察官已經(jīng)坐上自己夢想的職位。執(zhí)掌司法部“超越了我曾為自己設(shè)定的所有目標，”他不久前對記者說。

The Alabama conservative is finally getting a chance to implement policies he long championed — to no avail. Under Mr Sessions, the justice department enjoys an outsized role in combating the “American carnage” that Mr Trump inveighed against in his inaugural address.

作為來自阿拉巴馬的保守派人士，塞申斯終于有機會實施他長久以來一直主張——但未能實施——的政策。在塞申斯的領(lǐng)導下，司法部在終結(jié)特朗普在就職演說中猛烈抨擊的“美國浩劫”(American carnage)方面發(fā)揮了極其重要的作用。

In May, the attorney-general ordered prosecutors to charge “the most serious” crimes possible, a move that will lead to much longer prison sentences and reversed a decade of criminal justice reforms. He has also renewed the controversial “war on drugs” and promised to target gun crimes.

今年5月份，司法部長命令各檢察官以可能的“最嚴重”罪名對疑犯提起訴訟，此舉將導致案犯被處以更長時間的刑期，并逆轉(zhuǎn)了過去十年來美國進行的刑事司法改革。他還重啟了倍受爭議的“反毒品戰(zhàn)爭”，并承諾重點打擊槍支犯罪。

In April, when Mr Sessions told US attorneys around the country to prioritise criminal immigration enforcement, he announced that the department was rushing 25 additional immigration judges to border detention centers to speed deportations and would streamline hiring procedures to add an additional 125 judges over the next two years.

今年4月份，塞申斯要求全國的聯(lián)邦檢察官將移民方面的刑事執(zhí)法放到優(yōu)先地位。他當時宣布，司法部正加緊向邊境拘留中心增派25名移民法官，以加快非法移民的遣返進程。同時，司法部將精簡招聘程序，以便在未來兩年再招聘125名法官。

The department also threatened to cut funding to “sanctuary cities” where local officials refuse to co-operate with federal immigration authorities.

司法部還威脅說，一些城市的當?shù)毓賳T拒絕配合聯(lián)邦移民當局工作，將削減對這些“庇護城市”的撥款。

Notably, Mr Sessions moved quickly to erase Obama administration initiatives, reversing a decision to phase out the use of private prisons and ordering DoJ attorneys to switch sides in a courtroom fight over a Texas voter identification law. He has also opened the door to scrapping agreements with police departments in cities such as Baltimore, Chicago and Cleveland which the Obama administration had introduced when it found evidence of biased policing following police killings of black residents.

值得注意的是，塞申斯迅速地推翻了奧巴馬政府的如下計劃：逐步停止使用私人監(jiān)獄;他還命令司法部的檢察官在德克薩斯州選民身份法的法庭辯論中重新選邊站隊。奧巴馬政府在警方槍殺黑人居民后發(fā)現(xiàn)了能夠證明警察在執(zhí)法過程中持有偏見的證據(jù)，并與巴爾的摩、芝加哥和克利夫蘭等城市的警察部門達成了相關(guān)協(xié)議。但塞申斯也為廢除這些協(xié)議打開了大門。

All this has made him a favourite of the Republican base. As Mr Trump tormented Mr Sessions this week, the populist news site Breitbart News attacked the president, not his underling. Mr Trump’s criticism of Mr Sessions for not prosecuting Hillary Clinton, after the president had earlier ruled it out himself, made him a hypocrite, the site said.

塞申斯所做的這一切使他成為共和黨基礎(chǔ)選民極為青睞的人物。在特朗普總統(tǒng)最近不斷難為他的時候，民粹主義新聞網(wǎng)站Breitbart News抨擊的是總統(tǒng)，而不是塞申斯。該網(wǎng)站指出，特朗普批評塞申斯沒有對希拉里•克林頓(Hillary Clinton)提起訴訟是偽君子的做法，因他早些時候已經(jīng)表態(tài)不起訴希拉里。

Observing the spectacle of the attorney-general absorbing repeated criticism from his boss, some Republicans said the president will pay a price for his treatment of Mr Sessions.

看到司法部長連續(xù)受到總統(tǒng)批評這場鬧劇，部分共和黨人指出，總統(tǒng)將會為如此對待塞申斯付出代價。

More than 350 positions requiring Senate confirmation are still empty as the administration enters its seventh month.

在特朗普政府執(zhí)政進入第七個月之際，有超過350個需要參議院確認的職位仍然空缺。

“People who are thinking of leaving good jobs to work for the administration are going to think, why on earth would I sign up for that?” one Washington Republican said.

一位華盛頓州的共和黨議員說：“那些考慮離開目前不錯的工作崗位，去政府任職的人將會想，我究竟為什么要去遭那個罪?”