Clear Majorities Want Congress To Take Back Tariff Authority, More Chaos In North Carolina, Getting On The Right Side Of Opportunity

Trump's tariffs are modern-day "taxation without representation," an unconstitutional, unprecedented abuse of power by an American leader

Morning all. I feel like we all need a bit of a quiet weekend after some of the most chaotic and god awful lunacy we’ve all ever seen these past few weeks. So just a few notes this morning and some news too:

Trump’s Standing With The Public Has Taken An Enormous Hit - As someone who has looked at polling and economic data for more than 30 years I will tell you the data Trump is seeing now is very, very bad. Let’s now review the most important data from the week…..

A clear majority, 56%-33%, wants Congress to take its tariff authority back from Trump. Or putting it another way, 67% of the country currently does not support him having sole authority to levy tariffs (and for good reason, it is wildly unconstitutional!!!!!). Via Navigator Research:

The latest University of Michigan Consumer Sentiment survey released yesterday found Americans less confident today than during the Great Recession and COVID. This is the second lowest score since this survey launched in 1952! Graph via our friend Stephen Clermont at Change Research.

From the survey:

Consumer sentiment fell for the fourth straight month, plunging 11% from March. This decline was, like the last month’s, pervasive and unanimous across age, income, education, geographic region, and political affiliation. Sentiment has now lost more than 30% since December 2024 amid growing worries about trade war developments that have oscillated over the course of the year. Consumers report multiple warning signs that raise the risk of recession: expectations for business conditions, personal finances, incomes, inflation, and labor markets all continued to deteriorate this month. The share of consumers expecting unemployment to rise in the year ahead increased for the fifth consecutive month and is now more than double the November 2024 reading and the highest since 2009. This lack of labor market confidence lies in sharp contrast to the past several years, when robust spending was supported primarily by strong labor markets and incomes.

And yes let’s review that new YouGov poll that came out late Thursday. Trump’s job approval has dropped 19 points since Inauguration Day and his gains with groups critical to his election have unraveled:

• Economist/YouGov 4/1/25 46%-49% (-3) pre-tariff announcement

• Economist/YouGov 4/8/25 43%-51% (-8) post-tariff, pre-Wed shitshow

• YouGov 4/10/25 41%-54% (-13) post-Wed shitshow

And among those groups who wandered into his arms in 2024, disaster:

• Indies 30%-61% (-31)

• 18-29 30%-65% (-35)

• Hispanic 35%-61% (-26)

Now, for the first time on my life, I will quote Rand Paul, via the Washington Post:

“I am a Republican. I am a supporter of Donald Trump. But this is a bipartisan problem,” Paul said. “I don’t care if the president is a Republican or a Democrat. I don’t want to live under emergency rule. I don’t want to live where my representatives cannot speak for me and have a check and balance on power.”

“Tariffs have also led to political decimation,” Paul told reporters recently, referencing the devastating political fallout Republicans faced after levying tariffs in 1890 and in the 1930s — after which they lost the House and Senate for most of the next 60 years. “They’re not only bad economically, they’re bad politically.”

I agree with those who’ve argued that the weakening of the bond market spooked Trump, and caused him to make his false “retreat” on Wednesday. But it is also this data, and the collapse of both consumer confidence and his standing with the public. Trump is weaker now, diminished, and it’s why we are need to keep working as hard as we can.

Today, as a response to the rising prices Trump’s terrible tariffs are bringing us, I have begun discounting an annual Hopium paid subscription by 10% for the foreseeable future. While he makes your life more expensive, I will try to make it a little less so. Group and gift subscriptions are now also 10% off for those wanting to bring more people into this plucky community of proud patriots and get-shit-done doers.

Dems Need To Become The Party Of Prosperity, Opportunity, Getting Ahead, Better Lives. Not The Party Of Government Programs - I will have more to say on this in the days ahead but we are entering a time when we will be debating our economic path forward as a nation. The country has lost faith in them, and is giving us a chance to re-introduce who we are, what it is we want to do. I wrote about this at length yesterday. Please read it if you haven’t.

Here’s what I wrote at the beginning of the year in my 7 Takeaways From The 2024 Election analysis (also worth reviewing). We need to once again get on the right side of opportunity with voters:

Getting On The Right Side Of Opportunity/Winning The Big Economic Argument - As I wrote the other day, we need a deep and long conversation about how we can win the big economic argument with MAGA in the coming years. Three consecutive Dem Presidents have left the country far better than we found it. Three consecutive GOP Presidents have been economic and societal wrecking balls. We should not be losing the economic argument to these guys, or losing ground with working class voters given our economic track record. There needs to be urgency about finding a better path here, and it is very possible that Trump’s dangerous economic plans - tariffs, mass deportation, huge tax cuts for wealthy Americans, spending cuts for everyone else - will give us a big opportunity to make our case very soon (sure looks that way!!!).

Loud and proud people! Loud and proud!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

House Dems File A New Amicus Brief - As I was going to press got an exciting new announcement from Leader Jeffries’ office. Some excerpts from the release:

Today, House Democrats continued their efforts to push back against President Donald Trump’s unlawful executive directives by filing an amicus brief in defense of the essential constitutional principle of birthright citizenship in the matter of State of Washington, et al. v. Trump, et al. The brief was signed by 208 members of the Democratic Caucus…..

“An Executive Order is a Memo from the President to his staff. It does not trump federal law, much less the Constitution. Trump cannot end the Constitutional right to birthright citizenship with the stroke of his pen. That’s laughable. The order would strip children born in America of their rights under the Fourteenth Amendment, which violates the plain language of the Constitution, as repeatedly reaffirmed by the Supreme Court, as well as decades-old federal laws that codify this constitutional right,” said Ranking Member Raskin. “Trump not only believes he is above the law, he believes he has the power to strip the people of the United States of their fundamental constitutional rights and freedoms. The president does not get to decide who gets to be an American. That’s why I am proudly joining the fight to defend the Constitution, 150 years of legislative and judicial precedent, and the birthright of all children born in America.”

“Donald Trump and Elon Musk will stop at nothing to enact their far-right agenda, including attacking the United States Constitution with an unprecedented assault on birthright citizenship and the Fourteenth Amendment. Their blatant and unlawful disregard for the rule of law in the form of this illegal executive order shocks the conscience and House Democrats will continue to push back against it” said Leader Jeffries.

“President Trump cannot overturn the 14th Amendment by way of executive fiat,” said Assistant Leader Neguse. “And as both the son of immigrants and a defender of the democratic values that form the foundation of our nation, I will push back against this blatantly unconstitutional effort.”

We are making progress people. Our movement is winning elections, gaining strength, and becoming more confident and ambitious every day. While we get stronger he gets weaker. It’s why we cannot let up and need to keep working hard.

North Carolina Supreme Approves Most, But Not All, Of The Contested Ballots - Yesterday the North Carolina Supreme Court ruled that almost all of the 65,000 contested ballots from the November election were valid. They did however say that those casting overseas and military ballots need to prove their ID in the next 30 days. I am in touch with Anderson Clayton and will have more for you on Monday. As Justice Allison Riggs told us in our discussion this week if she was unhappy with the NC Supreme Court ruling she was likely to take this case to Federal court. So we need to wait and see what the NC team decides to do.

This Politico story does a good job recapping where we are now. Enjoy this quote from the Republican Supreme Court Justice who voted against the conservative majority’s decision, Justice Richard Dietz:

“I expected that, when the time came, our state courts surely would embrace the universally accepted principle that courts cannot change election outcomes by retroactively rewriting the law. I was wrong,” Dietz wrote. “By every measure, this is the most impactful election-related court decision our state has seen in decades.”

For more watch my interviews Justice Allison Riggs and NC Dem Chair Anderson Clayton, and consider donating to the NC Dem Party today to help cover the costs of the suit and keep fighting in this critical battleground state.

More Hopium Goodness For Your Weekend Reading, Viewing and Listening Pleasure - Enjoy everyone:

• My new video presentation on how Trump ends the week a weaker and far more diminished figure, and an essay on we need to begin to see Trump as an American saboteur rather than an American President

• My discussions on the need to end Trump’s destructive tariffs with Senator Tim Kaine and noted economist Rob Shapiro

• An uplifting interview with AZ AG Kris Mayes on how 23 Dem Attorneys General are fighting - and winning - against Trump’s unprecedented attack on our Constitutional order

• Jon “Bowzer” Bauman on the GOP’s escalating attacks on Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid and David Leopold for a primer on Trump’s wild assault on immigrants and our civil liberties

For The Week Ahead Our Top Recommended Hopium Actions and Campaigns - We’ve launched some new actions and campaigns, and are for now retiring a few old ones…here we go!

1 - Demand Congress Take Back Their Tariff Authority From Trump - Call/contact your Senators and House Member today and demand they override and roll back these incredibly dangerous and destructive tariffs. Insist they sign on to the new Kaine resolution!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2 - Fight The Trump-Musk Attack On Our Government, Our Privacy And Our Constitutional Order - Encourage your Senators and Representatives to follow Senator Booker’s lead and let Facts be be submitted to a candid world in a joint Senate-House Letter to America; to hold their own hearings; to file criminal referrals for Musk and his malicious posse to DOJ/FBI and amicus briefs in the court cases regarding the usurpation of their Constitutional authorities or file suits of their own (House Dems began doing this several weeks ago). Encourage them to hold a daily morning press conference to more aggressively challenge Musk’s ransacking of the USG that is making America less prosperous, less healthy, less safe and far less respected in the world.

3 - Loudly Protest Trump’s Embrace of Russia and Abandonment of NATO and Europe - Let your electeds know you are outraged by traitorous Trump’s selling out of Zelenskyy, abandonment of Europe and embrace of Putin; and that we cannot accept this level of appeasement of someone who is a clear enemy of America and the West, and certainly not an ally. Demand that Trump not let his Saudi meeting w/Putin become our Munich; demand that he not become our Neville Chamberlain; demand that we rejoin our European and NATO allies in support of Zelenskyy and democracy here and everywhere. The country is not with Trump’s embrace of Putin and we must be very loud, very, very loud now. See my new essay on the need to support our allies and not surrender to Putin, and my recent interview with Rep. Adam Smith, the Ranking Member of the House Armed Services Committee, one of the most important foreign policy voices in our party.

4 - Our Work In The States, The Spring Offensive - I am going to rework this section as so much has happened since we called on our community members to organize in the 17 most vulnerable Republican House seats. Rallies and protests have exploded across the country and the “Hands Off” events this weekend drew extraordinary crowds. The DNC/House Dems/State Parties have kicked off People’s Town Halls in all 50 states. I have come to believe that we should be leaning on our state and local electeds to pursue these organized “condemnations” of the Trump regime and their betrayal of America. Let’s start talking now about what we are going to do on July 4th, a day with all of a sudden much more importance.

Here are the current list of People’s Town Halls folks can attend and support during the coming Easter recess:

• Arizona’s 6th Congressional District on April 13th, represented by Republican Rep. Juan Ciscomani

• Pennsylvania’s 8th Congressional District “Good Trouble Festival” on April 22nd, represented by Republican Rep. Rob Bresnahan

• Colorado’s 8th Congressional District on April 24th, represented by Republican Rep. Gabe Evans

• North Carolina’s 9th Congressional District on April 24th represented by Republican Rep. and NRCC Chair Richard Hudson

• Missouri’s 2nd Congressional District on April 25th, represented by Republican Rep. Ann Wagner

Paid subscribers should self-report their actions today in our daily chat. So inspired by how hard so many of you are working. I want to make a special plea to all Hopium readers in states with Republican Senators - please make your calls, every day. Even 50 to 100 people calling every day in every red state can make a difference. We have hundreds of Hopium subscribers in every state in the country and it’s critical that we all do our part now.

Next, for those wanting to do more traditional political/campaign work we have four Hopium-backed efforts we're rallying behind:

Help Abigail Spanberger Win Virginia - Virginia will be one of the big battlegrounds of the November, 2025 elections and we have a great candidate for Governor, Abigail Spanberger. Watch my interview with Abigail, donate, volunteer, and learn more here. Given how many federal employees live in Virginia, this race is also now on the front lines of the Trump/Musk assault on the federal government.

We’ve raised more than $76,000 so far towards our June 30th goal of $250,000 - thank you all. Let’s keep working it for Abigail!

Help Allison Riggs, Anderson Clayton And The NC Dems Stop The GOP’s From Stealing A Supreme Court Seat - A few weeks ago we began a campaign to raise $50,000 for Justice Allison Riggs, Anderson Clayton and the NC Dems. These funds will help the NC Dems get off to a great start in 2025 and help cover the costs of their fight to prevent the Republicans from stealing a Supreme Court seat we won together in 2024.

If you want to go deeper into the GOP’s rancid effort to steal a Supreme Court seat watch my new interviews with Justice Riggs and Anderson Clayton, the inspiring Chair of the North Carolina Democratic Party.

We’ve raised $38,000 so far towards our June 30th goal of $50,000 - thank you everyone!

Support The Hopium House 7 - We’ve begun our work to help flip the House next year by supporting and shoring up the 7 newly-elected battleground House Dems we helped elect last year. Catch our interviews with Derek Tran and Janelle Bynum and give to all 7 through a single donation on our new ActBlue page. Learn more about this important effort here.

We’ve already raised over $58,000 towards our $250,000 June 30th goal - thank you all!

Thank Senator Booker For Standing Up For America - Senator Booker is up for re-election next year and many of you asked if they could channel their support and appreciation for him through Hopium. So I’ve set up an ActBlue fundraising page for him with a goal of raising $100,000 by June 30th. We’ve already raised $20,000 - thank you all. Let’s be there for Senator Booker as he been there for us at this critical time.

Keep working hard all. Proud to be in this fight with all of you - Simon