“美国优先”的忠实拥趸乌纱难保？
从唐纳德•特朗普(Donald Trump)对待司法部长杰夫•塞申斯(Jeff Sessions，见上图)的方式，你可能永远也想不到，塞申斯一直是总统在移民和犯罪等问题上“美国优先”政策的忠实拥趸。
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.”
塞申斯已命令全国的94名联邦检察官优先处理违反移民法规的刑事诉讼案，并主张对暴力罪犯处以更严厉的刑罚，同时郑重承诺“全力配合执行特朗普总统重视的那些事项”。
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竞选总统的美国参议员，为特朗普进军白宫提供了关键的支持。他可能原本曾期望总统会对他说声“谢谢”。但事与愿违，最近几天，特朗普对效忠于他的这位司法部长以怨报德，公开抨击他，说他是“饱受批评”和“软弱”的，并表示后悔让他加入内阁。
“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.”
“我对司法部长非常失望，但我们会走着瞧。” 特朗普不久前在白宫玫瑰园举行的新闻发布会上说，“时间会证明一切。”
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.
公开羞辱内阁成员引起了共和党人的关切，其中包括塞申斯的前参议院同僚，同时，也引发外界质疑特朗普是否有能力吸引专业人士来填补数百个政府职位空缺。为了总统特朗普，塞申斯可谓鞍前马后、尽心尽力，但这似乎并没有换来他在司法部长这个位置上的高枕无忧。
“The most loyal dog in Trump's kennel gets the most savage whipping,” Rick Wilson, a Republican political consultant, said on Twitter.
“特朗普的狗窝里最忠诚的那条狗遭到了最野蛮的鞭打”，共和党政治顾问里克•威尔逊(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竞选团队的“通俄门”调查，总统对此仍然耿耿于怀。随着特别检察官罗伯特•米勒(Robert Mueller)最近几周将调查范围扩大到特朗普的生意和财务往来，总统对塞申斯的愤怒是有增无减。
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.”
共和党高层面对的问题是，有媒体报道称，特朗普有意任命新的司法部长来取代塞申斯，新部长可以将特别检察官解职。参议院民主党领袖查克•舒默(Chuck Schumer)警告说，此举可能会引发一场“灾难”。
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最近的一项联合调查显示，48%的受访者认为总统将特别检察官撤职是不恰当的，22%的受访者支持总统这么做。但曾担任特朗普竞选经理的科里•莱万多夫斯基(Corey Lewandowski)不久前对美国广播公司(ABC)说：“如果总统愿意，他有合法的权力来解除罗伯特•米勒的职务”。
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，特朗普最优先考虑的是他个人的地位，而不是政府政策，曾任奥巴马政府司法部(DoJ)发言人的马特•米勒(Matt Miller)说。“这一切表明，特朗普的要求只有一个：将对他的忠诚置于对法治和其他一切的忠诚之上，”他说。
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这位司法部长，并派助手公开讨论他的位子，塞申斯也不太可能辞职。
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.
在担任参议员的二十年间，塞申斯多数时间因礼貌和好脾气受到同事们的尊重，但他没掌握什么权力。现在，这位前联邦检察官已经坐上自己梦想的职位。执掌司法部“超越了我曾为自己设定的所有目标，”他不久前对记者说。
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.
作为来自阿拉巴马的保守派人士，塞申斯终于有机会实施他长久以来一直主张——但未能实施——的政策。在塞申斯的领导下，司法部在终结特朗普在就职演说中猛烈抨击的“美国浩劫”(American carnage)方面发挥了极其重要的作用。
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，司法部长命令各检察官以可能的“最严重”罪名对疑犯提起诉讼，此举将导致案犯被处以更长时间的刑期，并逆转了过去十年来美国进行的刑事司法改革。他还重启了倍受争议的“反毒品战争”，并承诺重点打击枪支犯罪。
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，塞申斯要求全国的联邦检察官将移民方面的刑事执法放到优先地位。他当时宣布，司法部正加紧向边境拘留中心增派25名移民法官，以加快非法移民的遣返进程。同时，司法部将精简招聘程序，以便在未来两年再招聘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.
司法部还威胁说，一些城市的当地官员拒绝配合联邦移民当局工作，将削减对这些“庇护城市”的拨款。
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奥巴马政府的如下计划：逐步停止使用私人监狱;他还命令司法部的检察官在德克萨斯州选民身份法的法庭辩论中重新选边站队。奥巴马政府在警方枪杀黑人居民后发现了能够证明警察在执法过程中持有偏见的证据，并与巴尔的摩、芝加哥和克利夫兰等城市的警察部门达成了相关协议。但塞申斯也为废除这些协议打开了大门。
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.
塞申斯所做的这一切使他成为共和党基础选民极为青睐的人物。在特朗普总统最近不断难为他的时候，民粹主义新闻网站Breitbart News抨击的是总统，而不是塞申斯。该网站指出，特朗普批评塞申斯没有对希拉里•克林顿(Hillary Clinton)提起诉讼是伪君子的做法，因他早些时候已经表态不起诉希拉里。
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.
看到司法部长连续受到总统批评这场闹剧，部分共和党人指出，总统将会为如此对待塞申斯付出代价。
More than 350 positions requiring Senate confirmation are still empty as the administration enters its seventh month.
在特朗普政府执政进入第七个月之际，有超过350个需要参议院确认的职位仍然空缺。
“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.
一位华盛顿州的共和党议员说：“那些考虑离开目前不错的工作岗位，去政府任职的人将会想，我究竟为什么要去遭那个罪?”
