Name: 法瑞德看時事：川普政府如何打壓專家！ (Fareed's Take: The Trump administration's attack on experts)
Uploaded: 2025-12-25T16:58:06.000Z
Duration: 6 min 32 s

Here's my take One of the differences between Donald Trump's second term compared to his first has been a full blown attack on the expert class.

我個人認為，川普第二任期與第一任期最大的不同，就是對專家階層發動了全面性的攻擊。

虛擬句型

JD Vance urges that we trust our common sense over the ideas of the experts.

JD Vance 呼籲我們要相信自己的常識，而不是專家的想法。

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Is actively overruling the views of the medical establishment on issues like vaccines.

小羅伯特·甘迺迪積極推翻醫療體系在疫苗等議題上的觀點。

Pam Bondi forces out Justice Department officials who prize professionalism over personal loyalty.

Pam Bondi 強勢撤換那些將專業能力置於個人忠誠之上的司法部官員。

Stephen Miller 對非政府組織宣戰。

It is part of an American cultural revolution designed to discredit the credentialed elites who, in their view, run America.

這是一場美國文化革命的一部分，旨在詆毀那些他們認為掌控美國的持證精英。

It's true that over the last few decades America has spawned a meritocracy armed with Ivy League degrees and specific skills and training that has come to dominate business, government, media and culture.

的確，過去幾十年來，美國催生了一個績優制，他們擁有常春藤聯盟的學位，以及特定技能和訓練，進而主宰了商業、政府、媒體和文化。

And it is also true that it can morph into a group of smug technocrats who lose touch with the society they come from.

同樣真實的是，這也可能演變成一群自以為是、脫離社會根源的技術官僚。

But before we join the pylon, let's keep in mind that the rise of a merit based elite is a historic shift in the right direction.

但在我們加入這個陣營之前，讓我們記住，績優精英的崛起是朝正確方向的歷史性轉變。

What did we have before an old boys network in which the right family name, religion, prep school and club assured your passage to the top?

在此之前，我們有什麼？一個老男孩俱樂部，在那裡，對的家族姓氏、宗教、預備學校和社交圈就能保證你登上頂峰？

Meritocracy, however imperfect, opened doors.

績優制雖然不完美，但卻打開了機會之門。

It promoted people on the basis of their aptitude and academic excellence, bringing Catholics, Jews, Asians and blacks into the American establishment.

它根據人們的天賦和學術卓越來提拔人才，讓天主教徒、猶太人、亞洲人和黑人進入了美國的體制。

It placed a premium on competence over lineage, on work over patrimony.

它重視能力而非血統，重視工作而非父權。

The real problems of meritocracy are best addressed by creating better access to high quality education, fewer non merit mechanisms like legacy admissions and racial quotas, more rigorous grading and a renewed respect for non professional work skills.

解決績優制的真正問題，最好的方法是創造更好的優質教育機會，減少像 legacy admissions 和種族配額這類非績優機制，加強評分標準，並重新重視非專業工作技能。

In other words, more emphasis on genuine merit and real efforts to make sure everyone has access to opportunity.

換句話說，就是更強調真正的績優，並努力確保每個人都有機會。

But as the populist right trashes meritocracy, it is replacing it with something older, cruder and more corrosive.

然而，當民粹右翼抨擊績優制時，他們卻用更古老、更粗糙、更具腐蝕性的東西取而代之。

A naked plutocracy ruled by the very rich.

一個由超級富豪統治的赤裸裸的財閥政治。

We now have the wealthiest cabinet in history stocked with billionaires and centimillionaires.

我們現在擁有史上最富有的內閣，成員都是億萬富翁和千萬富翁。

Immense wealth is seen as the single best qualification to run anything.

巨大的財富被視為管理任何事務的最佳資格。

Since Elon Musk is the world's richest man, he must be qualified to tackle the entire federal government.

既然 Elon Musk 是世界首富，他一定有資格處理整個聯邦政府。

Okay, he overruled a bunch of experts who spent decades understanding how to stop the spread of AIDS in Africa.

好的，他推翻了一群花費數十年研究如何阻止愛滋病在非洲傳播的專家。

But the thinking these days is if they were so smart, how come they aren't rich?

但現今的想法是，如果他們那麼聰明，為何他們不富有？

Billionaires are today regarded as fonts of wisdom on everything and even dispense oracular advice on dating.

如今，億萬富翁被視為所有事務的智慧泉源，甚至還會給予關於約會的預言式建議。

Outside of the hubris of such thinking is the genuine problem of conflicts of interest in May, a cryptocurrency company created by Steve Witkoff, Donald Trump and their sons announced that it received a $2 billion investment from a firm controlled by Sheikh Tahnoon, the national security adviser of the United Arab Emirates.

這種思維的傲慢之外，還有一個真正的問題，那就是利益衝突。五月時，一家由 Steve Witkoff、Donald Trump 和他們的兒子們創立的加密貨幣公司宣佈，獲得了由阿拉伯聯合大公國國家安全顧問 Sheikh Tahnoon 控制的一家公司 20 億美元的投資。

Just two weeks later, the White House agreed to a plan to give the UAE access to the highest end AI chips from America a a plan negotiated by Teh Noon and advocated by Witkoff within the White House.

僅僅兩週後，白宮同意了一項計劃，讓阿聯酋能夠取得美國最頂尖的人工智慧晶片，這項計劃是由 Teh Noon 協商，並由 Witkoff 在白宮內倡導。

We are to believe that there is no connection between these two decisions.

我們要相信這兩個決定之間沒有任何關聯。

其中一個數字肯定說明瞭一切。

A Reuters special report calculates that the Trump Organization's income for the first half of 2024 was about $51 million and about $864 million in the first half of 2025.

路透社的特別報導估計，川普集團在 2024 年上半年的收入約為 5100 萬美元，而在 2025 年上半年約為 8.64 億美元。

To give you a rough sense of how steep that rise is, Nvidia's net income rose about 44% in that same time frame.

為了讓大家大致瞭解這個漲幅有多驚人，Nvidia 在同一時期淨利潤上漲了約 44%。

Take the almost parodic example of plutocratic politics.

拿這個近乎諷刺的富豪政治當例子。

The planned $300 million White House ballroom, funded by private donors, many of whose fortunes depend on federal contracts, regulatory decisions, and

這個計畫中的三億美元白宮舞廳，是由私人捐助者出資，其中許多人的財富都依賴聯邦合約、監管決策，

antitrust enforcement, tariff and export licenses.

以及反壟斷執法、關稅和出口許可證。

Trump says this is a great idea because it comes with zero cost to the American taxpayer, quote unquote.

川普說這是個很棒的主意，因為「引述」他的話，對美國納稅人來說零成本。

But history tells us that when government asks big business for favors in return, over time it dispenses special treatment, tax breaks and regulatory advantages to its favorites.

但歷史告訴我們，當政府要求大企業回報恩惠時，久而久之，它就會給予其寵兒特別待遇、稅務減免和監管優勢。

And the taxpayers are the ones who foot that bill.

這個舞廳的資金籌措會很便宜。

By contrast, the current crowd of tech billionaires delight in the access they have to the Trump White House.

相較之下，現在這群科技富豪很享受他們能接觸到川普的白宮。

But surely they understand that the key to America's innovation is that they were able to build their companies without any special access, without having to curry favor with the government, without having to pay for the president's personal vanities.

但他們肯定明白，美國創新的關鍵在於他們能夠在沒有任何特殊管道、不用巴結政府、不用支付總統個人虛榮的開銷下，建立起自己的公司。

The price of their access will be paid for by those young entrepreneurs toiling in their garages right now who lack the money and connections to join the White House billionaires club.

他們獲得管道的代價，將由那些現在在車庫裡辛勤工作的年輕創業者來支付，他們沒有金錢和人脈來加入白宮富豪俱樂部。

With a tax code that already heavily favors the super rich, today's plutocracy will inevitably turn into a new inherited elite, with families maintaining power and privileges for generations.

在現有的稅法已經大幅偏袒超級富豪的情況下，今天的 plutocracy（富豪統治）勢必會演變成新的世襲精英，家族將世世代代保有權力和特權。

This is the opposite of the American idea.

For Thomas Jefferson, nature's most precious lesson in setting up a society was that it should be run by what he called a natural aristocracy based on virtue and talents.

湯瑪斯·傑佛遜認為，建立社會最寶貴的自然法則，是社會應該由他所謂的、基於美德和天賦的「自然貴族」來領導。

The best governments, he explained, choose their leaders based on this criteria.

他解釋說，最優秀的政府會根據這個標準來挑選領導人。

The wrong model was the artificial aristocracy based on wealth and birth.

而基於財富和出身的「人為貴族」則是錯誤的模式。

Provision should be made, he concluded, to prevent such a system from rising in America.

他總結說，應該採取措施，防止這種制度在美國興起。

Oh, well, go to fareedzakharia.com for a link to my Washington Post column this week.

好吧，請到 fareedzakharia.com 連結我這週的《華盛頓郵報》專欄。