Roy Cooper Jumps Into The NC Senate Race, Trump Imposes A 15% Tariff On Europe, It's The Zealotry, Stupid

We have live events scheduled for both Tuesday and Wednesday this week

Jul 28, 2025

Morning all. Over the next few weeks we are going to hear from a wide variety of elected officials and experts to assess where we are six months into Trump the sequel and offer thoughts on where we go from here. Some of the events will be recorded, some live. Here are the live events we have scheduled so far this week:

Tue, 130pm, ET - Leah Litman, author of “Lawless,” a new book on the Supreme Court, joins us to discuss where we are in the legal fight against Trump’s galloping authoritarianism. Click on this link a bit before 130pm tomorrow to join us live.
Wed, Noon, ET - Colette Delawalla of Stand Up For Science returns to Hopium to update us on the intense battle to main America’s global scientific leadership. She will be joined by Dr. Jeremy Berg, a noted scientist and former high-ranking NIH official. Click on this link a bit before noon on Wednesday to join us live.

This week we will also be hearing from Senator Alex Padilla, one of the Hopium House 7 Rep. Josh Riley (NY-19) and author Nathan Heller. Paid subscribers gather at our usual time, Wednesday at 7pm and Founding Members gather this Friday at 1pm ET. All of our live events are recorded and shared for those who can’t join us live, and all are open to the public. So feel to use the links provided to invite friends and colleagues and help bring Hopium to more folks in your networks.

Governor Roy Cooper Jumps Into The North Carolina Senate Race - This morning the popular former Governor of North Carolina Roy Cooper jumped into the open Senate seat in North Carolina. Simply, this is our very best Senate pick up opportunity this cycle and we need to be all in here. I’ve set up a new fundraising link for his campaign and have set a goal of $25,000 to be raised by Labor Day and $200,000 by the end of the year. I expect we will hear from him soon. All in on this one people, Hopium is diving back into North Carolina again!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Trump Imposes A 15% Tariff on Europe, As He Has With Japan - As we’ve been discussing here it appears that Donald Trump, illegally, unconstitutionally, recklessly, is in the process of establishing a 15% global tariff on all goods imported into the United States. Last week it was Japan. Now Europe. The rest of the world by Friday it appears, his August 1st deadline. Some countries, depending on what he had for breakfast that morning, may see much higher tariffs. One guy, without debate and consultation with Congress or our allies, is in the process of changing the economic system for every country and every person in the world. It is without question the most extraordinary and breathtaking abuse of Presidential power in our history. It is also, in our view, total fucking economic and geopolitical madness.

Here’s the Washington Post this morning (gift link, please read this)

Trump said he would impose a 15 percent duty on most imports from the European Union, about half of his latest threat of 30 percent in levies. The White House did not immediately release specific details of the trade agreement, which are traditionally hundreds of pages long and take years to negotiate.
“It’s great that we made a deal today instead of playing games and maybe not making a deal at all,” Trump said.
Trump and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced the outlines of the deal Sunday at Trump Turnberry, one of two golf courses that the president owns in Scotland.
Both sought to paint the accord as “the biggest deal ever made,” but it was unclear if they were on the same page about how steel and other critical products would be affected. The agreement is likely to become a road map for further, more detailed talks.
From the end of World War II until Trump’s 2016 election, the U.S. largely designed trade agreements to lower the cost of trading with other countries, often through eliminating tariffs.
Trump’s protectionist trade strategy stands to reverse decades of U.S. globalization efforts in ways that could increase the prices of many goods for American customers.
U.S. importers pay these import fees, and those costs are often passed on to the businesses and consumers who buy them. As a result, many view these tariffs as taxes on end users.
Leaders from around the world are rushing to strike trade agreements with Trump ahead of an Aug. 1 deadline, when the White House has pledged to begin collecting new fees on imports from dozens of countries.
With few details made public, many trade specialists were reluctant to comment on the announced arrangement between the U.S. and the E.U. Some noted that earlier presidential announcements of “trade deals” have actually referred to skeleton agreements that require additional negotiations to finalize.
……
The White House has announced several recent trade announcements with great fanfare, only to have questions emerge in subsequent days about exactly what had been agreed with countries such as Japan and Vietnam. The White House said it reached a “historic” agreement with the United Kingdom in May, but months later, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer is expected to meet with Trump on Monday to hammer out the particulars.
For the E.U., a 15 percent blanket tariff is far worse than what European officials had previously hoped for and significantly higher than pre-Trump levels. But the bloc has sought to avoid an all-out trade war with its traditionally closest commercial and military ally.
The contours of the deal do not include additional E.U. tariffs on U.S. goods. The bloc — which acts as a single market on trade — has held fire on a retaliation for months to allow for a deal, even as policymakers prepared a sweeping list of more than $100 billion worth of U.S. goods that the bloc could hit with its own tariffs if talks collapsed.
Washington also let go of some grievances that it was adamant would be necessary to address. The administration had pressed the E.U. for concessions on tech industry regulations and food standards, which E.U. officials insisted were nonnegotiable. After months of uncertainty, E.U. officials say they wanted a pact that gives key industries some stability.
“Today, with this deal, we are creating more predictability for our businesses. In these turbulent times, this is necessary for our companies to be able to plan and to invest,” von der Leyen told reporters after the announcement. “We are ensuring immediate tariff relief.”
The Trump administration has struck a handful of trade frameworks, but deals with large economies have proved more time-intensive than the administration anticipated. In April, a top Trump trade adviser predicted that the White House would make “90 deals in 90 days.”
This month, Trump extended the tariff deadline to Aug. 1 and began sending letters to dictate new tariff rates to many of the countries that did not yet have a deal.
……..
The United States will impose a 15 percent tariff on pharmaceuticals and semiconductors from the E.U., according to a White House spokesperson, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to detail the private conversations. Von der Leyen also said the E.U.’s understanding was that pharmaceuticals coming from the bloc would only be tariffed at that rate, though other countries probably will face higher tariffs on these goods.
……..
Trump frequently complains about the yawning gap in U.S.-E.U. merchandise trade. Last year, the U.S. imported almost $606 billion worth of European products while selling goods totaling about $370 billion to European buyers. The resulting $236 billion trade deficit is evidence of European unfairness, Trump insists.
But the U.S. runs a sizable surplus of its own in trade in services — such as financial advice, tourism and education — bringing the total trade relationship much closer to balance. Considering the total $1.8 trillion in goods and services that flow between the U.S. and the E.U., the U.S. trade deficit is less than $100 billion, which most economists say is inconsequential.

Dr. Rob Shapiro and I did a deep dive on the very real dangers of Trump’s emerging economic strategy last week for those who want a bit more. This is going to be a big week in this space as our mad leader will now remake the entire global economic system that America and our allies spent 80 years building all by himself, based on completely batshit crazy understandings of how it all works.

In his Substack, All Rise News, Adam Klasfeld reminds us that Trump is levying his tariffs even after the primary American court that overseas trade law declared them illegal:

Some useful context appears to be missing from The New York Times, Washington Post, and Wall Street Journal’s coverage of the trade deal that Donald Trump touted setting tariffs with the European Union at 15 percent rather than 30 percent.
None of those linked stories mention that the U.S. court specifically designated by Congress to review international trade found Trump’s tariffs illegal — at any level — and that ruling is coming up for appellate court review this week.
On Weds., July 31, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit will consider the three-judge panel’s ruling that the International Emergency Economic Powers Act does not justify Trump’s use of tariffs. The word “tariffs” cannot be found anywhere in the statute. (The federal appellate court paused the lower court’s ruling pending the appeal, but it hasn’t ruled yet on the merits.)
Oral arguments in the case are scheduled the day before the White House’s Aug. 1 deadline for Trump’s tariffs to take effect.
The case at issue was brought by five small businesses led by wines and spirits importer V.O.S. Selections, which recently warned the appellate court that Trump’s tariffs could damage their relationships with vineyards that “go back generations.”
In a legal brief, lawyers for the small businesses sum up the sweeping economic power Trump claimed — but which cannot be found in the law or the Constitution.
“The government claims the President may impose tariffs on the American people whenever he wants, at whatever level he wants, against whatever countries and products he wants, and for as long as he wants— merely by declaring longstanding U.S. trade deficits a national “emergency” and an “unusual and extraordinary threat,” declarations the government insists are unreviewable.”
No other president in United States history has asserted this power.

It’s the zealotry, stupid. It’s a phrase that has been running through my head all weekend. More on that, tomorrow and particularly in our live Wednesday conversation.

now……

Let’s Get To Work People!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Here at Hopium we like to do. Here we are proud, plucky, patriots but we are also put your head down, grind it out, get shit done doers. Trump and Republicans have stumbled, and given us a big opportunity now to tell our story and win back power. While are there so many things people can do to advance our cause I am partial to two sets of activities - supporting our candidates and party committees, and calling/contacting elected officials every day. So what follows is our recommendations to make sure your time and money are being put to the highest and best use in this time of national emergency……

Support Hopium’s Priority Candidates And Party Committees - Just set new fundraising goals for Labor Day, now remarkably six weeks away. Election Day is less than four months away and early voting starts in Virginia starts in less than two months - September 19th! Donate, volunteer, learn more about our candidates and opportunities here….

Mikie Sherrill NJ Gov (2025) - $200,000 goal, $44k raised - Donate | Learn More | Volunteer | Watch my interview with Rep. Sherrill
Abigail Spanberger VA Gov (2025) - $250,000 goal, $157k raised - Donate | Learn More | Volunteer | Watch my interview with Abigail Spanberger
Roy Cooper for NC Senate (2026) - $25,000 Labor Day goal - Donate | Learn More | Volunteer
Jon Ossoff GA Senate (2026) - $200,000 goal, $42k raised - Donate | Learn More | Volunteer
Hopium House 7 (2026) - $250,000 goal, $172k raised - Donate | Learn More, Volunteer, Watch My Interviews With Our Great Members
The New DNC - $200,000 goal $123,000 raised - Donate | Learn More | Volunteer | Watch My Interviews With Ken Martin and Jane Kleeb

Our Recommended Actions - Here are other actions you can take outside of our direct electoral work:

1 - Call your Senators and Rep To Demand They Revoke Trump’s Terrible Tariffs - Congress simply must take back its tariff authority that Trump has illegally and unconstitutional seized and dangerously abused; and at the very least they must stop what will be Trump’s ruinous new tariff increases slated to start on August 1st. Trump’s economic plan has failed, and we need to find a better way forward.

2 - Fight Trump’s Inhumane Immigration Escalation And His Broader Assault On Our Liberties - We must do more here, and I will be working to put together a strategy for us in the coming weeks. In the meantime watch my recent discussions with David Leopold Joe Garcia, Leon Krauze and Senator Chris Van Hollen for more.

3 - Bring “Resolutions Of Condemnation” To Your Community - Inspired by the tactics of our Founders learn about how Hopium members are advancing “Resolutions of Condemnation” in their communities across the country and consider bringing this initiative to your state, country or city/town. Remarkably, members of this community are now advancing 50 resolutions projects in 20 states. Can we get to all 50 states by the fall election?

Our newly updated Resolutions page includes a new chat for folks to report in on their progress or seek counsel from those interested in launching a resolutions project in their community. This is one way to fight back against Trump’s unprecedented abandonment of our Constitutional order.

4 -Volunteer To Help Your State and/or Local Democratic Parties Stand Up Voter Registration Efforts And Support “Organizing Summer” - In the presentation he made to our community recently Tom Bonier made a persuasive case that Democrats must once again make partisan voter registration a national priority. State and local Democratic Parties are in the planning stages to take this on. Members of our community should consider contacting their state and local parties and offer to help stand up these vital efforts in the coming months.

The DNC, the DSCC, the DCCC, the DGA and the ASDC have announced a major “Organizing Summer” project. Learn more about it here. For more on what the DNC and state and local parties are intending to do this election cycle see my recent interviews with DNC Chair Ken Martin and ASDC President Jane Kleeb.

5 - Support Brave US Government Scientists Fighting To Protect Our Global Scientific Leadership - Staff at 3 of the most important US science agencies - NIH, EPA and NASA - have now courageously filed letters of discontent against their leadership. Learn more and sign your name to support these remarkable initiatives, and do you part to fight to main America’s global scientific leadership!

For more watch my interviews with Colette Delawalla, Executive Director of the advocacy organization Stand Up For Science; and Dr. Michael Mann, a world leading climate scientist, and author of the forthcoming book, Science Under Siege.

6 - Review and Comment On Hopium’s Working Agenda - Many of you have noted that we must do more than oppose, we must also propose and make clear to the American people what they will get if they put us back in power. To that end, with input from many of you, I’ve drafted an initial 2026 Agenda. Check it out here, offer comments and improvements, take it into your communities and create discussions and debates about who we are, and what story we want to tell to our voters this fall and next year. Appreciate those who have weighed in so far.

7 - Grow Hopium And This Wonderful Community Of Proud, Plucky, Patriots - We’ve set a goal of trying to grow the Hopium community from the 152,000 we are now to 175,000 by Election Day, 2025. Do what you can to encourage your friends, family and colleagues to become a summer subscriber to Hopium, free or paid. If each current paid subscriber brings in just one new subscriber this summer we will hit our goal.

To encourage the growth of our community annual paid subscriptions are 10% off through Labor Day. Use that link to buy gift or group subscriptions, and join our new referral rewards program too.

Finally, please self-report your activities to our daily paid subscriber chat. These reports help inspire all of us to do more and fight harder! Been impressive to see how many of you remain involved in local, in person protests of all kinds in your communities. Keep it up!!!

Keep working hard all. Proud to be in this fight with all of you, and a fight it truly is - Simon

Hopium Chronicles By Simon Rosenberg

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