2026-06-14T08:00:07.930Z / 美国有线电视新闻网（CNN）
- 总统唐纳德·特朗普的80岁生日派对同时也是一场彰显男子气概的暴力秀。
- 尽管他一直在竭力强化自己的硬汉形象，但美国人并不像他期望的那样，将他视为霸道的力量象征。
- 例如《华盛顿邮报-美国广播公司新闻报》和路透社-益普索的近期民调显示，至少53%的美国人认为特朗普不是一位强有力的领导人。
本文由AI生成摘要，并经CNN编辑审核。
早在今年3月，唐纳德·特朗普总统就声称中情局告诉他，伊朗新任最高领袖穆赫塔巴·哈梅内伊可能是同性恋。
特朗普的白宫团队及其盟友最近还开始暗示，民主党关键参议院候选人、来自得克萨斯州的詹姆斯·塔拉里科是跨性别者且为纯素食主义者——这两项指控均不实。
在特朗普及其盟友看来，这些抹黑他人的手段能够反衬出自己的男子气概。
如果你还没有察觉到特朗普试图塑造的形象反差，周日在白宫南草坪举办的UFC格斗赛已经将其表露无遗。
这位总统将以一场铺张的男子气概展示来庆祝自己的80岁生日，届时将有男子在白宫领地内的八角笼中进行近身格斗。
但这场以纪念美国建国250周年为名的暴力生日派对，也掩盖了其第二任期内日益令人不安的现实：尽管特朗普一直在竭力强化硬汉形象，但美国人并不像他期望的那样，将他视为霸道的力量象征。
随之而来的问题是，当一个将自身品牌与力量深度绑定的男人失去公众的这种认知时，会发生什么？
男子气概一直是特朗普吸引力的核心所在。这位总统会在活动中播放《男子汉》（Macho Man）这首歌，这已是公开的事实。
而近年来，这一点更是成为他吸引力的关键所在。
他试图以自己在宾夕法尼亚州巴特勒遭遇暗杀未遂后幸存的经历来定义自己：当时他耳朵流血，站起身来举起拳头高喊“战斗！战斗！战斗！”。
特朗普在2024年大选中获胜，很大程度上得益于他向年轻男性群体拓展了吸引力，其中包括讨好乔·罗根等在该群体中广受欢迎的网红。年轻男性选民的支持率较2020年提升了15个百分点。
特朗普的第二任期也一直以展示力量为核心。
他将国防部重新命名为“战争部”——尽管并未获得法律授权——并威胁打击了十多个国家，对其中7个国家发动了空袭，推翻了两名外国领导人，并与伊朗开战。
他的政府在未经司法审查且透明度极低的情况下，在海上击毙了200多名他声称参与贩毒的人员。这些袭击可能构成战争罪，而他在伊朗问题上的言行也接近战争罪的边缘。
特朗普终于在去年实现了他期盼已久的军事阅兵。他正寻求在华盛顿建造一座巨大的“凯旋门”。他加大了反跨性别言论的力度，并且越来越以傲慢的态度对待女性记者。
但他也一直在努力维持强人形象，过程颇为吃力。
尽管他曾批评对手“精力不足”，但他如今大幅减少了国内出行次数，看起来也比十年前苍老了许多（白宫似乎总是有加速衰老的倾向）。尽管他曾嘲讽乔·拜登为“瞌睡乔”，但特朗普自己却多次在公开活动中打瞌睡。他似乎越来越依赖少数几个固定的竞选口号，公开露面时也常常表现得语无伦次。
随着战争、持续的通胀和经济悲观情绪导致他的支持率跌至新低，美国人不再认为特朗普有多强大。
《华盛顿邮报-美国广播公司新闻报》和路透社-益普索的近期民调显示，至少53%的美国人认为特朗普不是一位强有力的领导人。在这一指标上，只有2017年《华盛顿邮报》的一次民调结果比现在更差。
今年1月的CNN民调显示，58%的受访者认为特朗普不是“高效的世界领导人”，较2023年的51%有所上升。
另一项3月的路透社-益普索民调显示：
- 61%的受访者认为特朗普“年龄太大，不适合在政府任职”。
- 53%对41%的受访者认为特朗普“无法承受总统职位带来的身体负担”。
- 另有61%的受访者认为特朗普“因年龄变得反复无常”。
这项民调发布之际，另有迹象表明美国人越来越质疑特朗普的思维敏锐度。
多项民调证据显示，美国人不再信任特朗普在伊朗问题等事务上的判断力，也不再相信他有能力管理联邦政府。
在特朗普的全国政治生涯中，曾有一段时期，人们可能不喜欢他或他的政策主张，但普遍不会质疑他作为领导人的魄力。这一特质在很大程度上解释了他2024年击败卡玛拉·哈里斯的原因。根据盖洛普民调，尽管美国人总体上对哈里斯观感尚可，且认为她是更有道德的人选，领先优势达两位数，但他们同样以两位数的优势认为特朗普是更强大、更果断的领导人。
他作为硬汉和杰出商人的声誉，是经过数十年精心策划的舞台表演打磨而成的。
但在某个时刻，当美国人对执政成果失去信心时，他们往往会重新审视对领导人个人特质的固有印象。
随着特朗普迈入八旬高龄，且其总统任期摇摇欲坠，像周日这场UFC格斗赛这样的活动，可能会被视为一种过度的矫饰。
换句话说：上周的一项民调显示，仅有16%的美国人认为在白宫草坪举办混合格斗赛事是恰当的。另有46%的受访者认为此举不妥。
Trump’s UFC 80th birthday bash looks to rescue his tarnished macho image
2026-06-14T08:00:07.930Z / CNN
- President Donald Trump’s 80th birthday bash is also a violent display of masculinity.
- But even as he has sought to double down on his macho image, Americans don’t see him as much as the domineering totem of strength he wants them to.
- Recent Washington Post-ABC News and Reuters-Ipsos polls, for example, show at least 53% of Americans say Trump isn’t a strong leader.
AI-generated summary was reviewed by a CNN editor.
Back in March, President Donald Trump claimed the CIA told him that new Iranian Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei might be gay.
Trump’s White House and his allies have also recently taken to suggesting that a key Democratic Senate candidate, Texas’ James Talarico, is transgender and a vegan (neither of which is true).
In the views of Trump and his allies, those characterizations would seem to build up his masculinity at the expense of others’.
And in case you didn’t pick up on the contrast Trump is trying to draw, Sunday’s UFC fight on the South Lawn is making it clear.
The president is celebrating his 80th birthday with an ostentatious display of masculinity in which men will engage in hand-to-hand combat inside a cage on White House property.
But his violent birthday bash — ostensibly for America’s 250th anniversary — also masks an increasingly unhappy reality in his second term: Even as the president has sought to double down on his macho image, Americans don’t see him as much as the domineering totem of strength he wants them to.
And the question becomes, what happens when a man whose brand is so wrapped up in strength loses that public perception?
Macho-ness has always been key to Trump’s appeal. This is a man who quite literally plays the song “Macho Man” at his events.
But it’s become even more central to his appeal in recent years.
He has sought to define himself by his survival of an assassination attempt in Butler, Pennsylvania, after which he stood up, his ear bloodied, and raised his fist while saying, “Fight. Fight. Fight.”
Trump won the 2024 campaign in large part by expanding his appeal to young men, including by cozying up to influencers like Joe Rogan who are popular in that demographic. The young male vote swung 15 points toward Trump from 2020.
And Trump’s second term has been heavily focused on shows of strength.
He rebranded the Defense Department as the “Department of War” — not legally, though — and proceeded to threaten more than a dozen countries, strike seven of them, oust two foreign leaders and go to war with Iran.
His administration has killed more than 200 people on boats it says are involved in drug trafficking, without judicial review or much transparency. Those strikes might well constitute war crimes, which he’s also flirted with in the Iran war.
Trump finally made his long-sought military parade happen last year. He’s seeking to build a massive “triumphal arch” in Washington. He’s upped his anti-transgender rhetoric, and he’s increasingly spoken to female reporters in condescending ways.
But he’s also struggled to keep up the strongman image.
While he once criticized his opponents for “low energy,” he’s sharply curtailed his domestic travel and appears significantly older than a decade ago. (The White House has a tendency to accelerate the aging process.) Despite pillorying Joe Biden as “Sleepy Joe,” Trump has repeatedly appeared to nod off at public events. He seems to rely on an increasingly narrow universe of go-to talking points, and his public displays are often confusing.
And as his popularity has dropped to new lows amid the war, stubborn inflation and economic pessimism, Americans don’t see Trump as so strong anymore.
Recent Washington Post-ABC News and Reuters-Ipsos polls show at least 53% of Americans say Trump isn’t a strong leader. His numbers on that front were only worse in a single Post-ABC poll back in 2017.
In a CNN poll in January, 58% said Trump was not an “effective world leader” — up from 51% in 2023.
Another Reuters-Ipsos poll from March showed:
- 61% said Trump is “too old to work in government.”
- Americans said 53%-41% that Trump “cannot handle the physical toll of being president.”
- Another 61% said Trump “has become erratic with age.”
That last poll comes amid other signs that Americans increasingly question Trump’s mental sharpness.
And polling is ridden with evidence that Americans simply don’t trust the president’s judgment on things like Iran or his ability to run the federal government anymore.
There was a time in Trump’s national political career in which people might not have liked him or his priorities, but they generally didn’t doubt his strength as a leader. That characteristic went a long way toward explaining his 2024 victory over Kamala Harris. While Americans seemed to like Harris fine and viewed her as a more moral figure by double digits, according to Gallup polling, they viewed Trump as the stronger and more decisive leader by double digits.
His reputation as a man’s man and formidable businessman is one that’s been honed through decades of carefully crafted stage management.
But at some point, when Americans lose faith in the results, they often start to reevaluate their preconceptions of a leader’s personal characteristics.
And as Trump takes on octogenarian status and sees his presidency crumble around him, there’s risk of events like Sunday’s UFC fight looking like over-compensating.
To wit: A poll last week showed just 16% of Americans said holding mixed martial arts fights on the White House lawn was appropriate. Another 46% said it was inappropriate.