Lattice energy sum rules and the trace anomaly

We show that the additional contribution to the Michael lattice energy sum rule for the static quark-antiquark potential, pointed out recently, can be identified with the contribution to the field energy arising from the trace anomaly of the energy momentum tensor. We also explicitly exhibit the anomalous contribution to the field energy in the sum rule for the glueball mass obtained recently by Michael [Nucl. Phys. B 280 [FS18] (1987) 13].