Little Cracks Are Becoming Bigger Cracks, Dem AGs Fighting And Winning Vs Trump, We Need To Keep Working Hard Everyone

Hopium Paid Subscribers Gather Wednesday at 7pm ET/Founding Members Friday at 1pm ET

Morning all. Two things are still true today:

• We are stronger and Trump is weaker

• He and his allies continue to do extraordinary harm to the country and we must keep acting with great urgency. Please call/contact your Senators and House Rep today, particularly those of you represented by Republicans

The weekly Morning Consult poll came out yesterday afternoon. It found Trump’s job approval dropping 3 points in the past week, and 14 since Week 1:

• Trump Week 1 - 52%-44% (+8)

• Trump Today - 46%-52% (-6)

The decline here is similar to what we saw in the Reuters/Ipsos poll from last week which found a 16 point drop:

• Trump Week 1 - 47%-41% (+6)

• Trump April 3 - 43%- 53% (-10)

New Navigator polling out this morning shows similar data and declines:

Trump is weaker today than when he took office. It’s a central reason why we’ve been overperforming in special elections across the country this year and blew it out in Wisconsin last week. Depending on the poll between 3 and 7 percent of the overall electorate voted for him and now disapprove of the job he is doing. In these three polls his disapproval rating is 52%-53% which is very high. When Biden dropped out of the race last summer it was bouncing between 54%-56%.

A reminder of where Trump stands today versus other recent Presidents, via G Elliot Morris’ Strength In Numbers Substack.

This growing and undeniable sense of his weakness, his madness, his recklessness, his gross incompetence and his idiocy is causing little cracks to become bigger cracks here in Washington. I hope all Hopium regulars enjoy this headline from the Washington Post this morning:

From the article (gift link):

As the world reels from President Donald Trump’s trade war, JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon is alerting shareholders that the tariffs will “slow down growth.” Podcaster Ben Shapiro is warning that the president’s vision of international trade is “mistaken.” And Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) is advising that the tariff strategy carries “enormous risk.”

Trump’s tariffs are increasingly alienating some of the corporate titans, influencers and even Republican lawmakers who served as his boosters, as the president plows ahead with a trade strategy that has prompted wild swings in the markets. The criticism is an early sign that the economic turmoil caused by his trade war could leave lasting political scars for Trump, who doubled down on the strategy by threatening new tariffs against China on Monday morning.

The chiding marks a departure from the general acquiescence among Trump’s allies during the first 2½ months of his shock-and-awe presidency. Influential leaders in many spheres largely remained silent or cautiously supported the White House as it slashed the federal workforce, strained alliances with Europe and unleashed an immigration crackdown during the first 70 days in office.

………

The cracks in Trump’s clout were most visible in corporate America, as the executives who once touted Trump’s policies as good for business raced to measure the impact of the tariffs on their portfolios and supply chains. Executives who sounded the alarm on Trump’s plans for tariffs during his first term had minimized the impact of the duties during the early weeks of his administration.

Dimon, widely viewed as one of the most influential leaders on Wall Street, told CNBC in January that the tariffs were a “valuable” economic weapon and to “get over it.”

But on Monday, he used his influential annual shareholders letter to warn that Trump’s menu of levies would result in “inflationary outcomes” both on imports and prices in the United States.

“The recent tariffs will likely increase inflation and are causing many to consider a greater probability of a recession,” he wrote.

…………

Bill Ackman, a billionaire hedge fund manager who endorsed Trump after the July assassination attempt, wrote on X on Sunday that going ahead with the new tariffs was tantamount to launching an “economic nuclear war.” He pressed the White House to slow down and institute a pause on the levies.

“This is not what we voted for,” he wrote.

………

Throughout the campaign and the early weeks of his presidency, a cohort of podcasters and online influencers have helped boost Trump to their millions of followers. But in recent days, some of them began to lash out.

Shapiro, who initially supported Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis in the Republican presidential primary before switching his support to Trump, spent much of his recent episodes highlighting the flaws in Trump’s tariff push to his audience.

“The president’s vision of international trade is, I’m sorry to say, mistaken,” he said this week on “The Ben Shapiro Show.” “So this is a massive tax increase on American consumers. That’s what it is. And it is designed to be so,” he said, adding that it is “probably unconstitutional … one of the biggest tax increases on consumers in history,” which he said was “predicated on a bad idea of how international trade works.”

………..

The emerging criticism has not been limited to tariffs. Joe Rogan, the influential podcast host who endorsed Trump on the eve of the election, called the administration’s error in inadvertently deporting legal immigrants “horrific.”

“The thing is, like, you got to get scared that people who are not criminals are getting, like, lassoed up and deported and sent to, like, El Salvador prisons,” Rogan said on a recent podcast episode. Rogan was referring to Andry José Hernández Romero, a Venezuelan makeup artist who was deported to El Salvador after the Trump administration identified him as a Tren de Aragua gang member through his tattoos, which family members have said have nothing to do with the gang. Rogan had already derided Trump’s fight with Canada.

“This is so ridiculous. I can’t believe that there’s like anti-American and anti-Canadian sentiment going on,” he said. “I think it’s ridiculous … and I don’t really think they should be our 51st state,” he added.

Other notes and news this morning:

• Be sure to watch my new, uplifting interview with AZ AG Kris Mayes. She and the other 22 Dem AGs have become a very important part of our growing in strength opposition movement

• Adam Schiff and Jamie Raskin held a shadow hearing yesterday on Trump’s corrupt DOJ. More like this, please

• Republicans are struggling to take the next, ugly step in their plutocratic, deficit busting budget plan

• Farm-state Republicans rocked by tariffs fear Trump lacks exit strategy - The Hill

• Trump is revoking the visas of hundreds of students across the US in the final weeks of the academic year, without notifying them or their schools. It is barbaric behavior

• DNC announces new, muscular “War Room”

• DCCC announces their initial 2026 GOP House “Districts in Play”

• Paid subscribers can sign up for our get together tomorrow night at 7pm ET here. Lots to discuss!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hopium Conversations - Go deeper with experts, elected officials and others on the front lines:

• Dr. Rob Shapiro on Trump Declares War On The World (the tariffs)

• David Rothkopf on Trump’s Dangerous Foreign Policy

• David Leopold on Yes, People Are Disappearing in America

• Rep. Don Beyer on Fighting DOGE More Effectively

• Jon “Bowser” Bauman on Trump’s Attacks on Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid

• Casey Michel on The Unprecedented Corruption Of The Trump Regime

• Dr. Michael Mann on The Right’s War on Science

• Jane Kleeb on The New Leadership Team’s Plans For The DNC/State Parties

• Hopium House 7 Discussions with Reps. Derek Tran and Janelle Bynum

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.

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 new 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.

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!

Get Anderson Clayton And The NC Dems Fight The GOP’s Attempt To Steal A Supreme Court Seat - A few weeks ago we began a campaign to raise $50,000 for 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. Watch my new interview with Chair Clayton to get an update on the fight over the Supreme Court seat and her plans to win elections and counter Trump this year.

We’ve raised $34,000 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 $56,000 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 $17,000 - thank you all. Let’s be there for Senator Booker as he been there for us at this critical time.

Keep working hard all. So incredibly proud to be in this fight with all of you - Simon