【中美创新时报2024 年 10 月 22 日编译讯】（记者温友平编译）北卡罗来纳州格林维尔，在周一集会上发表演讲大约 20 分钟后，前总统唐纳德·特朗普忍不住提起这个越来越影响他 2024 年复出的话题。《波士顿环球报》记者Sam Brodey对此作了下述报道。
“那些白痴都会说，‘他有认知障碍’，”特朗普说，向电视摄像机点头，然后装出高亢的嘲讽声音。“‘他有认知障碍！’”
成千上万的特朗普支持者大声挤满了东卡罗来纳大学的竞技场，他们高声嘲笑这个建议。
在众多观众中，这位前总统最近在竞选活动中的表现——从不同寻常的漫无目的的回答，到他在市政厅停下来播放他最喜欢的歌曲的奇怪情节——几乎没什么可担心的，即使副总统卡马拉·哈里斯越来越质疑他是否适合担任公职。
事实上，在听了特朗普一个多小时的演讲后，他谈到了他通常的一系列话题，包括对氢燃料可能造成的毁容影响的漫无目的的即兴演讲，几位支持者更加相信他能够应对竞选和担任总司令的艰苦工作。
“电视上的新闻说他不稳定，精力不足……但他精力充沛，势头强劲，正在举办一场又一场的活动，”来自弗吉尼亚州约克县的火车工程师安德鲁·埃普勒说，他参加了每次选举的特朗普集会。埃普勒大胆地猜测，这位前总统可能有上帝赐予的“特殊能量源泉”。
《波士顿环球报》采访的每一位集会参与者都认为，尽管特朗普近十年来一直在竞选，并在白宫任职四年，但他和以前一模一样，很少有人承认他正在遭受衰老带来的任何重大不利影响。
来自北卡罗来纳州新伯尔尼的房地产经纪人马库斯·麦克拉纳汉提到，他的一位护士朋友在 Facebook 上声称特朗普有痴呆症的迹象。
“我说，‘真的吗？’”麦克拉纳汉说。“我看不出来他有痴呆症。在我看来，他和 2020 年时还是同一个人。”
对于特朗普核心选民之外的许多选民来说，他不是。6 月，《华盛顿邮报》和美国广播公司进行的一项民意调查发现，60% 的美国人认为特朗普年纪太大，不适合当总统。但在拜登总统退出竞选之前，民主党几乎不可能赢得这个问题，因为人们普遍担心他的年龄和能否赢得与特朗普的复赛。
从那时起，尤其是现在，在激烈竞争和势均力敌的竞选即将结束之际，哈里斯和民主党人抓住了特朗普竞选过程中的事件来强调他们的论点，即这位 60 岁的副总统代表了新一代。他们经常指出，如果特朗普在 11 月获胜，他将成为有史以来最年长的总统，今年 78 岁。
上周，特朗普在密歇根州的一次竞选活动中似乎打瞌睡，哈里斯竞选团队声称他太“疲惫”了，无法竞选总统。她在 X 上的竞选账户询问特朗普最近与南达科他州州长克里斯蒂·诺姆在宾夕法尼亚州市政厅举行的活动结束后，是否还好，他暂停了活动，在舞台上随着卢西亚诺·帕瓦罗蒂和村民乐队的音乐摇摆。
哈里斯还没有对特朗普最近的奇怪离题发表太多评论，尽管她可能不需要。例如，在周末宾夕法尼亚州阿诺德帕尔默地区机场举行的集会上，特朗普对这位著名高尔夫球手的赞扬变成了对淋浴中的帕尔默的粗鲁描述。
“这个人很坚强，我不愿意这么说，但当他和其他职业选手一起洗澡时，他们出来时说，‘天哪，这太不可思议了’，”特朗普说。
为了回应这些批评，特朗普和他的盟友试图更加强硬地反击，直言不讳地攻击哈里斯的智力。“她显然有问题，”他在周一的集会上说。据报道，在私下里，他的言辞要恶毒得多，《纽约时报》本月报道称，他在一次与捐助者的活动中用侮辱智障人士的言语来形容哈里斯。
在采访中，特朗普的支持者们减少了人身攻击，更多地解释了为什么这位前总统仍然敏锐——这让我们得以一窥选民对他不稳定表现的有利解读如何有助于这位前总统连任。
几位选民提到，据报道特朗普睡眠时间很少，每晚不超过几个小时，这证明了他的精力和耐力。许多人提到，他已经接受了几次采访——尽管越来越多地采访播客和保守派，而不是主流媒体——这是另一个数据点。
“我相信他能胜任这份工作。他接受采访，”麦克拉纳汉说。“特朗普谈论全球化、经济、国防……他和埃隆·马斯克坐在一起。马斯克不是傻瓜。”
其他人则认为，民主党缺乏可信度来追究特朗普的智力，因为民主党直到最近还在为支持拜登找借口，而拜登的衰落已经越来越明显。
尽管如此，这些特朗普的支持者坦率地承认，他们青睐的候选人并不总是准确表达自己的想法。对某些人来说，这种品质是他吸引力的一部分，但其他人似乎心照不宣地承认了为什么其他选民可能会觉得他的说话方式令人担忧。
“我试图这样描述，当他看起来漫无目的时，那只是他未经过滤的言论，是他未经过滤的想法，”住在新伯尔尼的前海军陆战队员迈克·汤普森 (Mike Thompson) 说。
对于特朗普的支持者来说，他们对他的商业和政治生涯的钦佩足以平息疑虑。“我希望他能更清晰、更切中要害，但他是一位身价 90 亿美元的商人。显然，他能做正确的事情，”东卡罗来纳大学会计专业学生杰西·莱姆 (Jesse Rhyme) 说。
“有时，我希望他能收敛一些，”他说。“但是谁没说过蠢话呢？”
特朗普本人试图标榜自己漫无目的的倾向。“我给出了华丽、流畅、出色的答案，”他说。“我称之为‘编织’，对吧？总是回到原点，但你会涉及很多领域。”
当特朗普在格林维尔集会上提到“编织”时，人群中爆发出会心的笑声，现在编织已经成为他演讲的常见内容。对于这里的许多听众来说，他的演讲风格非但没有让人担心或危险，反而和往常一样：有趣。
“我觉得这很搞笑，”23 岁的格林维尔人 Yasmine Monee-Corprew 说，她穿着一件印有特朗普 7 月被枪击后举起拳头的照片的衬衫。“这很幽默……为什么他不能开心点？”
当被问及她对特朗普明年 1 月宣誓就职后成为历史上最年长总统的看法时，Monee-Corprew 迅速插话道。“什么时候，”她说。
题图：唐纳德·特朗普周一在北卡罗来纳州格林维尔的竞选集会上发表讲话。LOGAN CYRUS/AFP via Getty Images
附原英文报道：
In North Carolina, Trump dismisses ‘cognitive decline’ speculation with bluster while fans insist he’s strong and can win
By Sam Brodey Globe Staff,Updated October 21, 2024
Donald Trump spoke at a campaign rally in Greenville, N.C., on Monday.LOGAN CYRUS/AFP via Getty Images
GREENVILLE, N.C. — Roughly 20 minutes into his speech at a Monday rally, former president Donald Trump couldn’t help but bring up the topic increasingly shadowing his 2024 comeback bid.
“All those idiots back there will say, ‘He’s cognitively impaired,’” Trump said, nodding at the TV cameras before assuming a high, mocking voice. “‘He’s cognitively impaired!’”
The crowd of thousands of Trump supporters, who loudly packed an arena at East Carolina University, raised their voices to jeer at the suggestion.
Among many in the audience, the former president’s recent performance on the campaign trail — from unusually rambling answers to a bizarre episode in which he stopped a town hall to play his favorite songs — was hardly something to worry about, even as Vice President Kamala Harris increasingly questions his fitness for office.
In fact, after hearing Trump speak for just over an hour on his usual range of topics, including a meandering riff on the potentially disfiguring effects of hydrogen fuel, several supporters left more convinced that he can manage the grueling rigors of campaigning and serving as commander in chief.
“The news on TV says he’s unstable, he’s low energy… he’s high energy, he has momentum, he’s doing event after event,” said Andrew Eppler, a train engineer from York County, Va., who has attended a Trump rally in every election. The former president, Eppler ventured, might have “a special source of energy” granted by God.
Every rally attendee interviewed by the Globe believes that Trump, despite nearly a decade of constant campaigning and four years in the White House, is just the same as ever, and few admitted that he was suffering any significant adverse effects of aging.
Marcus McClanahan, a real estate agent from New Bern, N.C., mentioned that a friend of his, who is a nurse, alleged on Facebook that Trump is showing signs of dementia.
“I said, ‘really?’” McClanahan said. “I don’t see it in him. He’s the same person to me that he was in 2020.”
To many voters outside Trump’s core base, he’s not. In June, a poll from the Washington Post and ABC found 60 percent of Americans believe Trump is too old to be president. But that was an issue that was near-impossible for Democrats to win before President Biden exited the race amid widespread concern about his age and ability to win a rematch with Trump.
Since then, and particularly now in the closing span of a bitterly fought and close contest, Harris and Democrats are seizing on Trump’s campaign trail episodes to underscore their argument that the 60-year-old vice president represents a new generation. They often note that at 78, Trump would be the oldest president ever elected if he wins in November.
After Trump appeared to nod off during a campaign event in Michigan last week, the Harris campaign claimed he is too “exhausted” to run for president. And her campaign account on X asked if Trump was well after he paused the recent Pennsylvania town hall event with South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem to sway onstage to Luciano Pavarotti and the Village People.
Harris has yet to say much about Trump’s most recent odd tangent, though she may not need to. At a rally in Pennsylvania over the weekend at Arnold Palmer Regional Airport, for example, Trump’s praise of the famed golfer veered into a crude description of Palmer in the shower.
“This man was strong and tough, and I refuse to say it, but when he took showers with the other pros, they came out of there, they said, ‘Oh my God, that’s unbelievable,’” Trump said.
In response to the criticism, Trump and his allies have sought to punch back harder, bluntly attacking Harris’s mental ability. “Something is clearly wrong with her,” he said at his rally on Monday. In private, he has reportedly been much more vicious, with the New York Times reporting this month that he used a slur for mentally disabled people to describe Harris at an event with donors.
In interviews, Trump’s supporters offered fewer personal attacks and more arguments for why the former president is still sharp — offering a glimpse into how voters’ favorable interpretations of his uneven performance could help hand the former president a second term.
Several voters mentioned how little Trump reportedly sleeps, no more than a few hours a night, as a testament to his energy and stamina. Many brought up the fact that he has done several interviews — though increasingly with podcasters and conservatives, not mainstream outlets — as another data point.
“I feel confident he can do the job. He does interviews,” McClanahan said. “Trump talks about globalization, the economy, the national defense… he sat down with Elon Musk. Musk is no dummy.”
Others argued that Democrats lack credibility to go after Trump’s mental ability, given that the party was until recently rationalizing its support of Biden, whose decline has grown increasingly apparent.
Still, these Trump supporters candidly acknowledged that their favored candidate isn’t exactly always on message. To some, this quality is part of his appeal but others seemed to tacitly acknowledge why another voter might find his speaking patterns concerning.
“I try to frame it in a way that when it seems he’s meandering, it’s just him unfiltered, it’s his unfiltered thoughts,” said Mike Thompson, a former Marine who lives in New Bern.
To Trump supporters, their admiration for his business and political career is sufficient to quiet doubts. “I wish he was more articulate, more to the point, but he was a businessman worth $9 billion. Obviously, he’s able to do something right,” said Jesse Rhyme, an accounting student at East Carolina University.
“At times, I wish he’d tighten things up,” he said. “But who hasn’t said stupid things?”
Trump himself has attempted to brand his tendency to wander. “I give my gorgeous, full-flowing, magnificent answer,” he said. “I call it, ‘the weave,’ right? Always get right back to the place but you cover a lot of territory.”
When Trump mentioned “the weave” at his Greenville rally, now a frequent fixture of his speeches, it prompted knowing laughter from the crowd. Far from being seen as concerning or dangerous, to many listeners here, his speaking style is the same thing it has always been: entertaining.
“I think it’s hilarious,” said Yasmine Monee-Corprew, a 23-year-old from Greenville, who was wearing a shirt featuring the photo of Trump raising his fist after being shot in July. “It’s a lot of humor… why can’t he have fun?”
Asked her thoughts on Trump being the oldest president in history if he takes the oath of office in January, Monee-Corprew quickly interjected. “When,” she said.
