尊敬的用戶您好，這是來自FT中文網的溫馨提示：如您對更多FT中文網的內容感興趣，請在蘋果應用商店或谷歌應用市場搜尋「FT中文網」，下載FT中文網的官方應用。
Another day, another indictment. The latest charges against Donald Trump do not involve paying hush money to a porn star or conspiring to subvert the 2020 election. They appear in a new book which strikes at the heart of the Trump myth: the notion that he is a self-made billionaire who personifies the American dream.
又是一天，又有一項起訴。最新對唐納•川普(Donald Trump)的指控不涉及向色情明星支付封口費或密謀顛覆2020年大選。這些指控出現在一本新書中，直擊川普神話的核心：他是一個白手起家的億萬富翁，是美國夢的化身。
Lucky Loser, an exhaustive study of Trump’s business record, suggests exactly the opposite. Trump owed everything to his father Fred, one of the country’s top housebuilders who made his fortune in the post-second world war construction boom. With a couple of exceptions, Trump’s own casino and real estate deals veered between indifferent and disastrous.
《幸運失敗者》是對川普商業記錄的詳盡研究，結果恰恰相反。川普的一切都歸功於他的父親弗雷德，他是美國頂尖的房屋建築商之一，在二戰後的建築熱潮中發家致富。除了幾個例外，川普自己的賭場和房地產交易在平庸和災難之間搖擺不定。
In every instance, owning or having an option on trophy assets beat building profitable businesses. Trump was going nowhere fast until he debuted as the blowhard host of NBC’s The Apprentice — a gladiatorial management contest filmed inside his gilded tower on Fifth Avenue. The show skyrocketed in the ratings, providing Trump with a financial lifeline and a platform for his successful campaign for the White House in 2016.
在任何情況下，擁有或擁有獎盃資產的選擇權都比建立盈利的企業更有優勢。川普在擔任美國全國廣播公司(NBC)《學徒》(The Apprentice)節目的牛皮哄哄的主持人之前，一直一事無成，該節目是在他位於第五大道的鍍金大廈內拍攝的一場角鬥場式的管理競賽。該節目收視率一路飆升，爲川普提供了財政生命線，也爲他在2016年成功競選白宮提供了平臺。
Lucky Loser draws heavily on previous exposés by the authors, New York Times journalists Russ Buettner and Susanne Craig. Digging through mountains of tax records, they discovered that Trump paid $750 in federal income tax in 2017, the year he became president. In 2008, he paid no federal income taxes during a year in which he collected $14.8mn from The Apprentice and $18.5mn from celebrity endorsements and licensing deals. In fact, Trump paid no federal income tax in 11 of the 18 years they examined.
《幸運失敗者》嚴重依賴於紐約時報(New York Times)記者拉斯•布埃特納(Russ Buettner)和蘇珊娜•克雷格(Susanne Craig)之前的揭露報導。他們翻閱了大量的稅務記錄，發現川普在2017年成爲總統的那一年只繳納了750美元的聯邦所得稅。在2008年，他從《學徒》獲得1480萬美元和從名人代言及授權交易中獲得1850萬美元的那一年，沒有繳納任何聯邦所得稅。事實上，在他們調查的18年中，川普有11年沒有繳納任何聯邦所得稅。拉斯-布埃特納和蘇珊娜-克雷格
Buettner and Craig’s work earned them a Pulitzer Prize, along with David Barstow, but the impact on Trump’s fortunes was akin to peanuts bouncing off a rhinoceros hide. He still refused to hand over his tax returns until ordered to do so by the US Supreme Court in 2021. Lucky Loser therefore often has the feel of a rematch, timed to puncture the Republican candidate ahead of the presidential election in November.
布埃特納和克雷格的工作使他們與大衛•巴斯托(David Barstow)一起獲得了普立茲獎(Pulitzer Prize)，但對川普的命運影響微乎其微，就像花生米彈在犀牛皮上一樣。直到2021年美國最高法院下令，他才同意交出他的稅務申報表。因此，《幸運的失敗者》常常給人一種重賽的感覺，旨在削弱11月總統選舉之前的共和黨候選人的地位。
There are sharper portraits of Trump, the relentless self-promoter who combines animal cunning with whiny narcissism. By far the best is Too Much and Never Enough, written by his niece Mary Trump, a trained psychologist. The story of Trump allegedly pushing aside his alcoholic older brother Freddie Jr — Mary’s father — to take over the Trump real estate empire is a Cain and Abel drama. In Lucky Loser, it comes across a little tame.
有更尖銳的川普肖像，這個無情的自我推銷者將動物般的狡猾與牢騷滿腹的自戀結合在一起。迄今爲止，最好的作品是他的侄女瑪麗•川普(Mary Trump)寫的《太多和永遠不夠》，她是一位受過訓練的心理學家。川普據稱推開了他酗酒的哥哥弗雷德•川普二世，接管了川普房地產帝國的故事就像是一出該隱和亞伯的戲劇。在《幸運失敗者》中，這個故事顯得有點溫和。
In their opening foray, Buettner and Craig blame Trump’s grip on the popular imagination on Americans’ awe of celebrity. “Our tendency to conflate the trappings of wealth with expertise and ability. Our eagerness to believe people of apparent status will not lie to us. Our inability to distinguish the fruits of hard work from those of sheer luck.”
在他們的首次嘗試中，布埃特納和克雷格將川普在大衆想像中的影響歸咎於美國人對名人的敬畏。「我們傾向於將財富的象徵與專業知識和能力混爲一談。我們渴望相信那些表面上有地位的人不會對我們撒謊。我們無法區分辛勤工作的成果和純粹的運氣所帶來的成果。」
A more uncomfortable conclusion is that the US tax system is rigged in favour of privileged insiders like Trump. True, the authors show how Fred Trump benefited from the favourable mortgage terms that the New Deal-era Federal Housing Administration provided to developers. They also lay out the tax dodges that allowed Fred to funnel millions to his princeling son. Trump has been equally adept in gaming the system.
一個更令人不安的結論是，美國的稅收制度被操縱，有利於像川普這樣的特權內部人士。誠然，作者展示了弗雷德•川普(Fred Trump)如何從新政時期美國聯邦住房管理局(Federal Housing Administration)向開發商提供的優惠抵押貸款條件中獲益。他們還揭示了弗雷德透過避稅手段將數百萬美元轉給他的太子。川普在利用這個系統進行操縱方面同樣熟練。
Lucky Loser shows how media credulousness fuelled Trump’s rise. Time and again, journalists swallowed his claims of huge wealth. Fawning profiles appeared regularly in print and on air. The New York Times itself was hardly immune, but even Mike Wallace of CBS’s 60 Minutes, supposedly the toughest interviewer on the block, swooned in Trump’s presence.
《幸運失敗者》展示了媒體的輕信如何助長了川普的崛起。記者們一次又一次地相信了他宣稱的鉅額財富。諂媚的報導經常出現在報刊和廣播中。紐約時報本身也難以倖免，但即使是被譽爲最嚴厲採訪者的哥倫比亞廣播公司(CBS)60分鐘節目主持人邁克•華萊士(Mike Wallace)在川普面前也陶醉了。
The New York banks were equally gullible, lending freely on Trump’s personal guarantees. Wall Street only wised up after Trump’s casino empire collapsed in the mid-1990s, forcing a wholesale disposal of assets. Yet Trump escaped personal bankruptcy, allowing him to make a comeback as a reality TV star.
紐約的銀行同樣輕信了川普的個人擔保，慷慨地借款。直到20世紀90年代中期，川普的賭場帝國崩潰，迫使進行大規模資產處置，華爾街才幡然醒悟。然而，川普成功逃脫個人破產，使他得以以真人秀明星的身份東山再起。
Unlike Trump’s gaudy casinos in Atlantic City, The Apprentice was a money gusher, thanks to product placement. Burger King, Domino’s, General Motors, Unilever — all the top consumer product companies appeared on the show. At one point, Trump was earning $1mn an episode from licensing and sponsorship deals.
與川普在大西洋城(Atlantic City)的華麗賭場不同，《學徒》透過產品植入成爲了一座金礦。漢堡王(Burger King)、多米諾、通用汽車(General Motors)、聯合利華等頂級消費品公司都在節目中露面。曾經，川普每集從授權和贊助交易中賺取100萬美元。
In the show, the winning apprentice would receive $250,000 and a year’s placement in the Trump organisation. But once again, as the authors show, the image of success was an illusion. The reality was a skewed selection process and a capricious, bullying host.
在節目中，獲勝的學徒將獲得25萬美元，並在川普組織中任職一年。但正如作者所展示的那樣，成功的形象是一種幻覺。現實是一個扭曲的選拔過程和一個反覆無常、欺凌的主持人。
As Jeff Zucker, boss of NBC News and Entertainment, admitted: “You were casting an actor . . . He was playing a part. We knew that. It’s called reality television, but it’s never real, per se.”
正如美國全國廣播公司新聞和娛樂的老闆傑夫•扎克(Jeff Zucker)承認的那樣：「你在挑選一個演員……他在扮演一個角色。我們知道這一點。它被稱爲真人秀，但從本質上說它從來都不是真實的。」
Until it was real. Donald Trump really did become the 45th US president. He really is running again for the White House. And if he makes it to the top again, somebody should write another book about the enablers who helped him on his way up, the people who looked away from the lies, and the system that allowed him to lead such a charmed life.
直到它變成了現實。唐納•川普真的成爲了第45任美國總統。他真的再次競選白宮。如果他再次登頂，應該有人寫一本書，講述那些幫助他一路上升的助推者、那些對謊言視而不見的人，以及允許他過上如此幸運生活的體制。
Lucky Loser: How Donald Trump Squandered His Father’s Fortune and Created the Illusion of Success by Russ Buettner and Susanne Craig Bodley Head £25/Penguin Press $35, 528 pages
《幸運失敗者：唐納•川普如何揮霍了父親的財富並創造了成功的幻象》由拉斯•布埃特納和蘇珊娜•克雷格著，Bodley Head出版社25英鎊/企鵝出版社(Penguin Press)35美元，528頁。
Lionel Barber, a former editor of the FT, is author of ‘Gambling Man: The Wild Ride of Japan’s Masayoshi Son’
萊昂內爾•巴伯(Lionel Barber)，前英國《金融時報》主編，是《賭徒：日本孫正義的狂野之旅》一書的作者
Join our online book group on Facebook at FT Books Café and subscribe to our podcast Life and Art wherever you listen