House Dems Launch Initial Round Of Digital Ads, Musk Criticizes Trump's Reckless Budget Bill, 70% Of Americans Want COVID Vaccines Free And Available To All

Ron Brownstein Joins Us This Friday at 12:15pm ET/Welcome New Subscribers!

Morning all. I am in Little Rock, Arkansas for the spring gathering of the Democratic State Parties so posts will be a little lighter these next few days. If you haven’t gotten to them yet I recommend my new discussion with Brian Tyler Cohen; my new video and post with my take on where things stand today (too much Trumpian sabotage); yesterday’s post about Trump’s escalating attacks on science, knowledge and academia; and of course always feel free to check out our upcoming Events schedule or dive into our library of great discussions with those leading the way here and on YouTube and Spotify too. Note that the great Ron Brownstein will be joining us live at 12:15pm ET Friday - you won’t want to miss that one (here’s the registration link).

The new Economist/YouGov weekly track is out and here is where Trump’s job approval is today compared to his first week in office (spoiler alert - it’s not good):

Overall 49%-43% (+6) to 44%-52% (-8) - a 14 pt decline

18-29 48%-43% (+5) to 36%-59% (-23) - a 28 pt decline

Hisp 42%-47% (-5) to 31%-61% (-30) - a 25 pt decline

Black 29%-60% (-31) to 24%-70% (-46) - a 15 pt decline

Indie 38%-41% (-3) to 27%-60% (-33) - a 30 pt decline

Less $50k 46%-42% (+4) to 39%-55% (-16) - a 20 pt decline

$50-100k 51%-44% (+7) to 48%-48% (even) - a 7 pt decline

Inflation 45%-39% (+6) to 38%-56% (-18) - a 24 pt decline

This new Economist/YouGov poll also has some interesting data on the public’s perception of COVID vaccines. While there is lingering hostility to mandates the idea of restricting access to COVID vaccines is deeply out at odds with where the public is now (see yesterday’s Hopium post for more on why we must fight Trump’s war on science, knowledge and academia). The big stat here - 70% of voters want the COVID vaccines to be free and available to everyone, and there is little public support for restricting access:

The Democratic SuperPAC for House Democrats launched digital ads in 26 Republican-held House seats this week. Here’s an example of one the ads, this one against Rob Breshnahan in PA-08:

Elon Musk has been doing a series of wistful interviews about his time in Washington and his return to his flagging businesses. Yesterday, remarkably, he criticized the President’s budget bill for being fiscally reckless (which it is). Here’s an excerpt from his talk with the Washington Post (gift link):

STARBASE, Tex. — Elon Musk, returning to SpaceX on Tuesday for a test flight of his Starship spacecraft, said in an interview that slashing the size of federal government proved far tougher than he expected and lamented the intense criticism leveled at the U.S. DOGE Service, which he has led.

“The federal bureaucracy situation is much worse than I realized,” he said. “I thought there were problems, but it sure is an uphill battle trying to improve things in D.C., to say the least.”

He said repercussions over DOGE cuts had been severe. “DOGE is just becoming the whipping boy for everything,” he said. “So, like, something bad would happen anywhere, and we would get blamed for it even if we had nothing to do with it.”

He also expressed dismay over the reputational hit his companies took: “People were burning Teslas. Why would you do that? That’s really uncool.”

Musk told CBS News in a separate interview that he did not approve of President Donald Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill with its massive tax cuts, a major break with the president and Republicans. “I was disappointed to see the massive spending bill, frankly, which increases the budget deficit, not just decreases it, and undermines the work that the DOGE team is doing,” Musk said.

I found this new article in the Atlantic, American democracy still has a lot going for it, on point:

The first half-year of Donald Trump’s second term is not even over, and the portents of democratic erosion are already stark. The president has moved to consolidate power, purging civil servants deemed disloyal, directing federal officials to flout adverse court rulings, and ordering the Justice Department to investigate political rivals. These moves have alarmed many Americans, who see their country’s democracy as fundamentally in danger.

Regrettably, their concerns aren’t baseless. Even a long-established democracy can be undone—sometimes by a fairly elected leader. And yet, there is reason still to be hopeful; America is more resilient than many may fear. Unlike countries where democracy has recently unraveled, the United States displays at least six exceptional traits that are protecting it from the Trump-led assault: a robust network of advocacy groups, a powerful and independent judiciary, a constitutional system that makes executive preferences hard to entrench, a diverse and free private press, a federal system of government, and a uniquely speech-protective legal tradition. Some of these features may carry trade-offs in ordinary times, but they offer a clear advantage when democracy is under threat. If a Trump-like figure tried to purge nonloyalists, defy the courts, or use the government to punish rivals in places such as Poland, Brazil, and India, a popular resistance would be far less empowered.

And then there’s this, whatever it is:

Now, Let’s Get To Work - In my post on Saturday I offered up some initial ideas of what our summer was going to look like. Please check it out if you didn’t get to it this weekend.

Job One for us this summer is fighting Trump’s ruinous economic agenda. We need to keep calling every day and demand our leaders vote down the reconciliation bill and roll back Trump’s terrible tariffs. This is the big, definitional battle of the summer and we need keep working it every day.

I know many of you are involved in the June 14th No Kings events, town halls, Telsa take downs and all the other in person activities that have taken off of late. Thank you, and do keep working it everyone. I still encourage our community to keep exploring ideas for how we can Own The Fourth and make our Independence Day an ugly day for our mad wannabe king. Merch is coming soon, and be sure to check our robust Events schedule as new events are being added daily. The great journalist Ron Brownstein joins us live this Friday at 1215pm - going to be a good one!

In a few hours I will be addressing the spring gathering of the State Democratic Parties and will bringing in impressions from my trip into Hopium this week. Be sure to watch my recent discussion with DNC Vice Chair Jane Kleeb to get caught up on the national party’s ambitious and necessary 50 state “organize everywhere” strategy. As I prep for my talk today I keep coming back to two basic ideas - 1) we are stronger than we look 2) we simply must win in more red places.

Still have two primary and timely efforts we are working on:

1 - Help Abigail Spanberger Win Virginia - Simply, the Virginia elections are the most important elections we have this year, and we must win them. We have narrow majorities in both legislative chambers and while our candidate Abigail Spanberger has a modest lead in current polling, this is going to be a close election where our money and volunteer time can make a real difference. If you are to give to only one candidate or election this year it should be this one. Here’s a link to do so today……

To learn more about Abigail check out my new discussion with her, released yesterday. We have now raised over $113,000 towards our June 30th goal of $200,000 - thank you all. If you want to volunteer for her race head over to her campaign website today. We can do this people!

2 - 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 Reps Derek Tran, Janelle Bynum, Tom Suozzi and Laura Gillen and give to all 7 through a single donation on our ActBlue page. Learn more about this important effort here.

We’ve already raised over $103,000 towards our $200,000 June 30th goal - great work everyone!

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