Morning all. Let’s start by watching a short video (above) from a townhall meeting in Georgia last night. Here is how the reporter covering it, Greg Bluestein of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, described it on Twitter:
The town hall crowd peppers Rep. Rich McCormick with boos and catcalls as he struggles to answer a pointed question from a resident who says she’s a descendant of Patrick Henry who pressed him on whether Trump was moving toward “tyranny.”
Here is his full write up of the event. Our work, our voices, matter my friends. As I showed yesterday Trump’s job approval has begun to fall significantly in polling over the past two weeks, and he is now underwater (more disapprove than approve) in most of recent independent polls. And the legacy media has started covering his decline, his new found weakness. From Politico this morning:
Donald Trump’s honeymoon may be wearing off.
New polls show a majority of Americans say he has overstepped his presidential authority — and hasn’t done enough to address high prices.
Two new polls from CNN/SSRS and The Washington Post/Ipsos show the GOP president’s approval rating underwater (47-52 in the CNN poll, 45-53 in the Post), a shift from polling earlier this year that found voters roughly divided on him, with some surveys even showing a positive approval rating.
One reason for the erosion of support: a slight majority of respondents in both surveys said Trump has overstepped his presidential power in his attempts to reshape the federal government driven by tech billionaire Elon Musk. Many of Trump’s most controversial early initiatives, including a sweeping spending freeze, have been blocked in court thus far, but the new administration has still made waves with layoffs of federal workers, cuts to federal contracts and a flood of executive orders.
Those activities haven’t been popular, the new polling found. In the Post survey, for example, 58 percent of respondents opposed laying off large numbers of federal workers. And Musk, Trump’s most high-profile adviser, is not getting good marks either: Just 34 percent of respondents in the Post poll approved of Musk’s role in the federal government, while 54 percent of respondents in the CNN poll said it was bad for Trump to have given the SpaceX CEO a prominent role in his administration.
Yesterday we also discussed all the ways we are starting to see Congressional Republicans break from Trump
As Trump’s approval falls, inflation rises, the economy slows and his madness and betrayal become impossible to ignore, cracks are starting to appear in the President’s Congressional support.
Politico has a story this morning about Congressional Rs freaking out about the firing of federal workers called “The private GOP panic over the slash-and-burn DOGE firings.” The WaPo has a story “Republicans caught between Trump and farmers pleading for frozen funds.”
Here is NBC News reporter Sahil Kapur on Twitter yesterday:
Here is a Trump voter expressing their shock at what Trump/Musk are doing. These kinds of stories are appearing in legacy media all across the country, and as we discussed earlier this week they need to be amplified aggressively by all of us:
Here is Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Roger Wicker on CNN on Wednesday breaking hard from Trump’s new collaboration with Putin, saying Putin is a war criminal and should be executed:
Here is how Hopium community member Christine responded to Senator Wicker’s strong remarks (and yes it is critical to thank our Reps, even Rs, when they do the right thing):
Good morning Simon,
I phoned Senator Wicker’s office this morning to thank him for speaking out against Putin. His aide responded with heartfelt warmth, and I think, surprise and relief.
Attached is my brief script. You're probably already adding a similar to do task on our Hopium list today, but the call, I believe, is really important for us to make.
Thanks for all you do for all of us and our country.
Here is Jan S from our chat yesterday:
I almost fell off my chair when I saw that my Senator Thom Tilles gave this talk denigrating Putin and shouting about how much they had tortured Ukraine and the people of Ukraine. I actually sent him an email thanking him. (first one that thanked him. I email him every day to complain about the gop agenda under trump) I did ask him to please educate trump on Putin and Ukraine. (I also told him how disappointed I was in the terrible heads of departments in this administration and how unacceptable it was for Hegseth to denigrate NATO and our friends in Europe at the Brussels meeting about Ukraine.) And I did mention that he probably saw the poll that said 91% of Americans were opposed to Putin. See Tillis's stirring talk in the link below.
Here is Tillis’ speech:
Here is Rupert Murdoch’s NY Post today:
I am unbelievably proud of all of you. I am deeply inspired by the actions you are taking and the self-reporting we all get to read on our chat each day. This community is stepping up bigtime in a time of extraordinary national challenge. Together we are moving the needle, and just need to keep working it peeps. For with pressure, little cracks can become big cracks, and little wins can become big wins. We are Americans. Fighting for freedom and democracy is what we do. Who we are.
It is why Congressional Dems must launch a serious national campaign now to talk to the American people about Trump’s savage attack on the America of the Four Freedoms; his betrayal of all of us; and his ongoing unconstitutional usurping of Congress’s powers. I have written and spoken extensively about all the things I think our Congressional leaders need to do now to rise to the moment, and defend this oath:
I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter. So help me God.
And we in our calls to Congress each day are helping our leaders understand what is required of them now. But I’ve come to believe the next step Leaders Schumer and Jeffries must make is to write a letter to Trump, to their fellow members of Congress and the American people outlining why they believe what Trump is doing is wrong and unconstitutional. It should borrow from our Declaration of Independence, and lay out in clear language the case against our Mad King. It should be signed by every Democrat in both chambers. Every Congressional Dem should build days of action around it in their districts. It can be used by those fighting Trump’s illegal and unconstitutional acts in the courts. The national Dem grassroots can them amplify this call for patriotism and rejection of tyranny throughout all of our networks. It can become the rallying cry for proud patriots of all stripes to start rising up against our corrupt and traitorous leaders.
Here is a passage from our Declaration of Independence that then leads into a list of the Mad King’s “abuses and usurpations:”
But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.—Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.
Listing our Mad King’s “abuses and usurpations” is something that must get done, Leaders Schumer and Jeffries, “let Facts be submitted to a candid world.” It should be published early next week. Work all weekend. History is calling you, now. For as the inscription at the Department of Justice tells us:
Now, Let’s Get To Work!!!! - Here are my current working recommendations for calls/contacts this week. Four today, and thanks to all of you who are busting your ass right now:
Keep calling to stop Musk’s crime spree and assault on the US government. Encourage your Senators and Reps to file a criminal referral for him and his malicious posse to DOJ/FBI; insist Senators and Reps file amicus briefs in the court cases regarding the usurpation of their Constitutional authorities or file suits of their own; 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.
For those of you who live in AZ, CA, CO, IA, MI, NE, NJ, NY, PA, VA, WI please start talking to your local orgs - state and local Democratic parties, grassroots groups, traditional Dem allies - about mounting a campaign targeting the most vulnerable 17 Republican House Members to urge them to vote against the emerging - and disastrous - House budget plan. We launched this new effort on Monday Monday, and while we should be urging all our Senators and Reps to vote against these emerging plans, those of you can work these 17 House Rs have a special role to play in the coming battle over the budget. As we saw above Rs are wavering on this terrible House budget bill and we need to keep working it people!
Keep calling Attorneys General in the states. Ask them to protect you and your data, tax returns and privacy, and to keep federally mandated monies flowing to your states and communities. For those in the 19 states that brought the successful Treasury suit thank them and encourage them to keep going. I still believe these 19 states should make criminal referrals of Musk/his posse to DOJ/FBI and raise the stakes.
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.
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.
A note - while physical protests and rallies are a vital part of how we build our new opposition movement, make sure you only attend or promote events by organizations you know and trust. Please do not support any action - boycott, protest, rally, etc - unless you know and trust the organizers. Given the import of our work now I don’t think it wise or advisable to lend our support to newly formed, opaque organizations without a proven track record of working with Democratic groups and leaders.
For those wanting to do more traditional political/campaign work we have three Hopium-backed efforts we're rallying behind right now:
Help Susan Crawford and Ben Wikler in Wisconsin - As a way of honoring our good friend Ben Wikler and supporting this critical April Supreme Court race in Wisconsin, I’m asking our community to donate to the Wisconsin Democratic Party today. The money raised here will make sure Ben has the resources he needs to keep his team in place so they can support this critical statewide race. I know many of you are already deeply involved here - thank you all.
Watch our new discussion with Susan and Ben and thanks to a huge surge of support in recent days we have already raised $72,000, blowing past our $50,000 goal. We are now upping this to a stretch goal of $100,000 by March 31st. Amazing work everyone!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Help Get Ken Martin Off To A Strong Start - In this time of extraordinary challenge we need a strong DNC. Two weeks ago we set a goal of raising $100,000 by March 31st for our new Chair. Incredibly, over 1,000 of you have donated over $87,000 so far. Watch my interview with Ken about what he wants to do with the DNC, and chip in whatever you can to help Ken and the new exciting team at the DNC get off to a strong start. We now have a new stretch goal of $150,000 by March 31st after our very strong start for this effort (note that we did have some money clawed back due to an error in the amount someone gave!)
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 $43,000 so far towards our March 31st goal of $100,000 - thank you all. Let’s keep working it for Abigail!
More Things To Do - Dive into my recent interviews with folks who are making a difference. Check out our upcoming events. Register for my March 5th event with Heather Cox Richardson!
Also catch Abigail Spanberger live today, noon ET, at the wonderful Friday Power Lunch:
Keep working hard all. Proud to be in this fight with all of you - Simon
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