A Slower Economy, Higher Prices, Degraded Health Care, Pretti And Good, Epstein Coverup, Unprecedented Corruption, Unending Chaos - The State Of Our Union Is Troubled

The real State of the Union is that we've all had enough of this bullshit.....

Morning all. Big week. State of the Union. DHS is still not funded. Tariff chaos rippling through US/global economies. An armada is massed to attack Iran. Mexico, almost certainly at Trump’s urging, killed a cartel leader. The Winter Olympics lifted us up. The DCCC announced their its eleven Red to Blue targets, and primary season, and thus the 2026 elections, are now upon us. The Epstein scandal has metastasized, is now taking people down all over the world, even English Princes, and an activist group with the wonderful name, Everyone Hates Elon, were even able to “hang it in the Louvre” this past weekend:

To prep for the State of the Union we have new podcasts/discussions about Trump’s selling out the West to Putin; the urgent need to rein in ICE; fighting MAGA’s assault on science; what comes next - nothing good - now that the Supreme Court has taken away his imaginary Mad King/taxation without representation tariff powers, and an encouraging report from battleground Iowa.

Be sure to check out my new commentary:

• The State Of The Union Is That We’ve All Had Enough Of Trump’s Bullshit

• Trump Is Weak, and Now We Must Become Strong

• Has Mass Deportation Become A Domestic Vietnam For Trump, Vance, and Miller?

Yesterday I joined Allison Gill and MeidasTouch to discuss what has been an encouraging week for our politics; will be joining Mike Nellis live at 3pm EST tomorrow; and Katie Phang will be coming by live on Wednesday morning at 11am for a post-SOTU recap. Get links to join these live events on our Events page.

I have no idea what Trump is going to argue tomorrow. His economic plan has failed. He’s done incredible damage to our health care systems. He’s enriched himself, cut his own taxes and taken away vital programs for the poorest people in the world and here in the US while attempting to push the tax burden onto us - illegally, unconstitutionally - through his tariffs. He’s killed people in the streets of America and on the high seas. The world hates him. The country has turned on him. He’s leading an illegal cover up of a global sex trafficking ring that he was at the center of. It’s all just too much. He’s gone too far. Fucked too many things up, been way too crazy and dangerous. America doesn’t want this, doesn’t want a Mad King who lies, betrays, and stuffs his pockets. We want a President who fights for us, follows the law and the Constitution, and works with allies to tackle our common challenges. Instead we got this. And people are pissed.

Let’s look at some new data. It’s all about Trumpian rejection, repudiation, and failure.

The country has overwhelmingly rejected his tariffs, and he’s going ahead any way:

The country cheered the Supreme Court’s striking down of the tariffs, and he is going ahead any way:

Here’s the Fed’s main inflation measure, PCE, over the last year. Note the increase after Trump’s tariffs:

GDP growth slowed dramatically in the 4th quarter, and came in much lower in 2025 than 2024:

Job growth under Trump been anemic (thanks tariffs!):

Because he is an impulsive, desperate idiot, his new tariffs (also illegal, and temporary) are punishing those who negotiated trade deals with him and rewarding those he tried to punish:

Support for his inhumane, lawless immigration policy has plummeted:

Only 21% of Americans are on board with his assault on vaccines (see our anti-science discussion yesterday for more on this):

The country has no interest in another vainglorious, MAKE ME STRONG AGAIN MAMA, strike on Iran:

The polling continues to be across the board ugly:

Finally, I want to end with this. Why the mad scramble to replace the illegal tariffs, with ones probably equally illegal, temporary (150 days), and that punish his “friends” and reward his “enemies”? It’s about this:

As Rob Shapiro explained Trump needs the revenue to help pay for his tax cuts and the dramatic expansion of ICE. For without this revenue - which is gone now whether Trump will admit it or not - interest rates will rise, the economy will further slow, and there will be a very, very loud call to reverse the tax cuts for the wealthy and claw back all the ICE funding. Trump wants us to pay the tax and not him, and he-Vance-Miller need the money for their rancid white supremacist mass deportation campaign. So despite the SCOTUS ruling, terrible poll numbers, angry allies he has to go get that money……

The Supreme Court decision has changed the politics of the country, for now Democrats have much stronger arguments to attack his tax cuts and ICE funding, expenditures that we certainly can no longer afford. And we will be leading those calls to rescind the tax cuts and claw back the ICE funding here at Hopium in the days ahead……

Now, Let’s Get To Work People!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Winning The Midterms, Competing In Red States and Red Places, Expanding The Map

Hopium’s Winning The House Campaign (2026) - $175,500 raised, $250,000 goal (new stretch goal) - Donate to all four endorsed House challengers with one click | Learn More | Enjoy our new conversations with Christina Bohannan (IA-01), Mayor Paige Cognetti (PA-08), Jo Mendoza (AZ-06), and Janelle Stelson (PA-10). Now including funds already raised with our friends at FridayAction for a joint event we are doing in late March.

Hopium’s Audacious Expansion Fund - $378,400 raised, $500,000 goal (new stretch goal) - Join our new campaign to expand our map by investing in the Democratic Parties of Alaska, Florida, Iowa, Maine, and Texas. Many thanks to two generous Hopium community members who have audaciously donated $10,000 to each of our five state parties.

Mary Peltola For Alaska Senate - $36,400 raised, $250,000 goal - Donate | Volunteer and learn more. Amazing start everyone!

Winning Ohio - $61,100 raised, $250,000 goal - Our new campaign splits contributions evenly among Sherrod Brown, the Acton/Pepper ticket, and the Ohio Democratic Party. Donate today and help us turn this critical 2026 battleground blue! | Watch my conversation with David Pepper, who does a great overview of the opportunities we have in Ohio this year. Note a generous donor has sent $21,000 worth of Hopium-infused contributions directly to the candidates which are not included in our on-line goal tracker.

Roy Cooper for NC Senate (2026) - $78,700 raised, $250,000 goal - Donate | Learn More | Volunteer | Enjoy my conversation with Gov. Cooper

Jon Ossoff GA Senate (2026) - $131,600 raised, $250,000 goal - Donate | Learn More | Volunteer | Enjoy my inspiring conversation with Senator Ossoff

Keep working hard everyone. The momentum is with us, and we need to keep fighting as hard as we can - Simon