Breaking News - Don Lemon Arrested. Trump Isn't De-escalating. He's Doing What He Does When Weak, Struggling, Losing - He Panics, Escalates, And Mad Kings

Trump ends this tragic week by losing his shit and throwing the country into chaos

Late morning update. It’s now clear that after a very bad week Trump is doing what Trump does when he feels weak and that things are slipping away from him - he escalates, and creates more chaos and danger for the country and the world. This whole “de-escalating” feint this week was outrageous, insulting bullshit.

Prominent journalist Don Lemon was arrested last night:

Another independent journalist, Georgia Fort, was arrested last night in Minnesota:

Pam Bondi just posted this:

And the White House posted this extraordinary tweet this morning at 650am:

Shockingly, the Director of National Intelligence was part of a regime raid of the Fulton County, Georgia elections offices this week:

This five year old boy remains in detention in Texas, separated from his family:

Trump got one of the worst inflation reports this morning, further confirming the failure of his economic agenda:

Trump has - INSANELY - sued the federal government for $10 billion:

Due to his lawlessness Trump’s new “calming, de-escalating” pick for Federal Reserve Chair has already been blocked by his own Party (what an incredible shitshow!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)

After seizing Maduro, taking control of Gaza, and making his bat-shit crazy at Greenland, our “strongman’s” attention has wandered again to Iran. For bombing, attacking, being strong always makes him feel a little better:

As we discussed in this morning’s first post, tonight, large parts of the federal government will run out of money. It’s another extraordinary governing failure by Trump and his MAGA Congress who are already four months late in passing this budget. And I think this is a reason he has continued to escalate this week - for he knows the government shutdown is going to further weaken him, as it did last time. And he is just panicking.

Perhaps now - after this extraordinary spasm of erratic Trumpian escalation and chaos - our Congressional leaders will finally come to understand that there is no easy path available to us any more. We must now meet his his escalating authoritarianism and Mad Kingism by coming together, organizing ourselves more effectively, and fight with everything we got, every single day. Appeasement is seen as weakness, and encourages further escalation, and accelerates democracy’s decline. Senator Schumer took a stand this week against DHS/ICE lawlessness. It was the right call. And the strength and resolve Democrats have shown has rattled the White House. But now we must see this through, and realize that the battle in front of us is not just about reining in ICE. It’s about reining in Trump and his terrible regime.

In one of my mostly read and shared posts, It’s Not A Presidency. It’s A Crime Spree - And It Needs End, I wrote:

It is time now for Congress, and civil society more broadly, to discuss and begin more forcefully confronting Trump’s utter disregard for the law. The felon-in-chief’s crime spree started in the very early days of the Administration when they began illegally and unconstitutionally dismantling government agencies and programs, walking away from contracts, firing government employees, and stealing money appropriated for Congress for their own illicit purposes. It’s continued in his walking away from Senate ratified treaties with other nations; taking a billion dollar Qatari airliner for himself; the tearing down of the East Wing and his attempt to build himself a gilded ballroom; the savage assault on the rights and freedoms of people in communities across the country; sending innocent people to foreign gulags; the stealing of the USIP building from Congress, and then naming it after himself; the stealing of private government data about the American people; his attempt to sell out Ukraine and Europe to Putin for direct bribes; the dozens of War Crimes he’s committed in the Caribbean and the Pacific; the hundreds of illegal actions he has taken against the states and private institutions which have been reversed by the courts; the illegal renaming of the Kennedy Center, and his attempt to seize the public golf course adjacent to The Mall for his own venal purposes; the abuse of his pardon power, and the unprecedented corrupt we’ve seen; the levying of illegal tariffs and implementing Mad King “taxation without representation” once again; the ignoring the House subpoena for the Epstein files since July; and now in this outrageous, flagrant violation of the letter and spirit of the law he just signed that required him to release the Epstein files by midnight last night (I’m sure I am leaving something out).

Our Declaration of Independence described these lawless actions by an out-of-control leader as “injuries,” “abuses,” and “usurpations.” The entire American project was designed to build a nation where these things could not be possible, again. But here we are; it is not okay; and simply, it is our historic duty as Americans to fight our modern day mad king with far greater ambition and resolve.

Congressional Democrats have been slow to make this historic and dangerous lawlessness central to our conversation with the American people. We have righteously talked about affordability and tariffs, and his assault on our health and health care. But it is time now for our leaders to find a higher gear on his historic lawlessness here at home, and his dangerous betrayal of America and our democracy abroad.

For there is a thru-line to all of this - he is for himself and the oligarchs, and we are the defenders of America and its people. It is all one story.

Now……

Let’s Get To Work People!!!!!!!!

Keep contacting your Congressional reps and demand they rein in ICE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Winning The Midterms - Support Our Candidates

• Hopium’s Winning The House Campaign (2026) - $95,400 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)

• Mary Peltola For Alaska Senate - $23,300 raised, $250,000 goal - Donate | Volunteer and learn more. Amazing start everyone!

• Winning Ohio - $44,100 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 on-line goal tracker.

• Roy Cooper for NC Senate (2026) - $71k raised, $250,000 goal - Donate | Learn More | Volunteer | Enjoy my conversation with Gov. Cooper and a new, terrific one with NC Dem Party Chair Anderson Clayton

• Jon Ossoff GA Senate (2026) - $116k raised, $250,000 goal - Donate | Learn More | Volunteer | Enjoy my inspiring conversation with Senator Ossoff

Expanding The Senate and Electoral College Maps, Winning In Red States and Red Places (2026-2032)

• Hopium’s Audacious Expansion Fund - $339,100 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

3 Campaigns Where We’ve Hit Our Goals, But Are Still Active - We have three campaigns where we’ve hit our goals but that folks can still participate in - Ken Martin’s New DNC, Anderson Clayton and the North Carolina Democratic Party, and the Democratic Party of Minnesota (DFL).

We got the following note from Cynthia this week. She is one of the 3,000 Hopium subscribers in Minnesota:

I am a Minnesotan and cannot adequately express the depth of my gratitude to Simon for this conversation with Richard and organizing this fundraiser and to each person that donated. My heart is full and tears are running down my face. Thank you to everyone who has supported and spoke up for Minnesota in any way and pushed back against ICE and DHS anywhere.

This is the absolutely the most unsafe I’ve ever felt where I live. It far exceeds anything I’ve experienced, and I am white. It affects my decisions every time I go outside. I continue to call my reps and work with my friends and my partner to offer mutual aid, get training, and help others. My neighborhood has been quiet and we’re looking for more ways to help others in more affected areas. We are attending the Solidarity Mobilizations this coming Tues and next: https://www.mobilize.us/surj/event/885616/

I attended an excellent online event with Indivisible this week about the caucuses, plan to attend myself, and have gotten 2 more people to go already, with more on my call list.

I went to the annual art sled rally this weekend. It is one of my favorite events of the year! So much laughter, fun, and delight. Thankfully, there wasn’t ICE presence during the event that I’m aware of. Look for the Minnesota 2026 art sled rally on YouTube if you haven’t seen it yet!

Why We Must Invest Early, Now, And Not Wait - In three new essays (here, here, here) I discuss how one of the ways we win the 2026 midterms is by providing early support to our candidates and parties to allow them to staff up, be loud, define the terms of the debate now, before the inevitable onslaught on AI slop, Russian disinfo, and Trumpian lies funded through bribes and corruption wash across the land.

The midterms could be won or lost in these next few months - not in the fall of 2026 - and we need be fighting now with everything we got.

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