The Senate Rebukes Trump On His Tariffs - Let's Keep Making Our Calls People! Little Cracks Are Becoming Bigger Cracks As Rs Begin To Buckle Under His Many Failures & Escalating Madness

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Morning all. We had a big win last night - the Senate voted to repeal Trump’s tariffs on Brazil. The vote was 52-48, with 5 Republicans joining all 47 Democrats - Senators Collins, McConnell, Murkowski, Paul, and Tillis.

This clear repudiation of these terrible tariffs comes while Trump is wandering through Asia seeking “trade deals” to justify his reckless trade policy; despite JD Vance coming to the Senate GOP lunch yesterday to lobby for the tariffs; and a week before the Supreme Court hears arguments on the legality of Trump’s clear usurpation of Congress’s Constitutional authorities. Here’s Politico’s coverage of the vote this morning:

The Senate once again rebuked President Donald Trump on tariffs, a vote that comes as the president is in Asia touting tariffs and notching progress on trade agreements.

Senators on Tuesday voted 52-48 to terminate the national emergency Trump declared in order to impose 50 percent tariffs on most Brazilian goods in July. Five Republican Senators joined the Democrats in the vote: Thom Tillis (N.C.), Susan Collins (Maine), Lisa Murkowski (Alaska), Mitch McConnell (Ky.) and Rand Paul (Ky.), the measure’s co-sponsor.

The vote — the first in a series of three expected resolutions aiming to block President Trump’s tariffs on Brazil and Canada as well as his widespread global tariffs — comes amid bubbling tension in the Senate over how Trump’s trade war has affected farmers and small businesses.

Next week, the U.S. Supreme Court is set to hear oral arguments over whether Trump has overstepped his authority by using an emergency law to impose tariffs on nearly every country in the world.

“Emergencies are like war, famine [and] tornadoes,” said Paul, the most vocal opponent of Trump’s tariffs in the Senate. “Not liking someone’s tariffs is not an emergency. It’s an abuse of the emergency power and it’s Congress abdicating their traditional role in taxes.”

But the vote remains largely symbolic: Republican leaders in the House have blocked the chamber from voting to overrule the tariffs until March, protecting Republican members who are facing blowback from home state farmers and small businesses angry over the economic impact.

Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), a co-sponsor on the Canada and global tariff resolutions, said he is hearing rising discontent among “Republican senators who go home and they just feel like they’re getting hit by a trade wrecking ball.”

“People come up and say ‘the tariffs are killing us.’ You go to the grocery store and everybody’s up in arms,” continued Wyden, a ranking member of the Senate Finance Committee, which oversees trade issues.

Trump announced that he would impose a 50 percent tariff in July, in response to what he felt was an unfair legal case against former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro — a Trump ally — over his role in attempting to overturn the results of the country’s 2022 election, as well as over a Brazil’s policies on digital content, which has ensnared U.S. social media companies.

In his order imposing the tariffs, Trump declared a national emergency over “the scope and gravity of the recent policies, practices, and actions of the Government of Brazil constitute an unusual and extraordinary threat, which has its source in whole or substantial part outside the United States, to the national security, foreign policy, and economy of the United States.”

That order has received pushback from some in Congress, including Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.), who argued that by allowing the president to declare an emergency over a country’s treatment of a political ally would open the door to broader use of national emergencies to govern.

“Don’t lie and say there’s an energy emergency when there isn’t,” said Kaine, who sponsored the resolution. “Don’t lie and say Brazil’s prosecution of a president is an emergency when it’s not. Don’t use the lie to increase the price of coffee by 40 percent in a year. Don’t use the lie to punish a country with whom we have a trade surplus. Don’t lie and don’t hurt my citizens.”

Since late summer my central argument here at Hopium has been that as the real material harm of Trump’s destructive agenda became clear to the American people, and he and his agenda grew more unpopular, Republicans could start breaking from Trump and his iron grip over Congress could loosen. And it has happened. It has happened in the House this summer over the Epstein files and Johnson’s cowardly refusal to allow the House to return; it has happened with more and more Republicans voicing interest in negotiating over the ACA subsidy cuts; it has happened with a new Senate Republican effort to fund SNAP next month; it has happened with MTG’s very public break from Trump and Johnson; and it has now happened in a big way on the terrible tariffs.

Remember Republicans have very, very narrow majorities - they can only lose 2 votes in the House, 3 in the Senate - so once this kind of open defiance becomes routine Trump, Thune, and Johnson start to lose control of the Congress. Little cracks can become big cracks as we say here, and today, those cracks have become much, much bigger.

Here’s the question I put to all of you in my weekly video and written analysis last week - Will Congressional Republicans Stick With Trump As His Failures, Corruption, Unpopularity, And Madness Become Impossible To Ignore?

I have been in Washington a long time. 33 years. Trump has just gone too far on too many things. It is clear that his agenda isn’t working and is doing real, clear material harm to the country. He has become wildly unpopular, and his agenda even more so. He is usurping Congressional powers and attempting to turn duly elected leaders - ones who will be around long after he is gone - into eunuchs (Johnson seems to enjoy it, Senate Rs much less so). He left the country as the government shutdown has become a true national crisis. His growing madness, and physical decline is in our faces, every day, impossible to ignore. He has illegally murdered dozens of men in little boats on the high seas, disappeared people into foreign gulags, and is sending the military into our cities. He chose to let 42 million Americans to go hungry and his wiping out of US foreign aid will end up killing 15 million of the poorest people in the world in the next few years. He negotiates with Hamas but not Congressional Democrats in what is in essence a 50-50 Congress. He tore down THE EAST WING OF THE WHITE HOUSE last week to build himself an imperial ballroom FFS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Look at how that is polling btw - 25% approval, only 55% support with Republicans. Unprecedented levels of unpopularity and rejection.

There was always a chance that at some point Republicans grow weary of this unbelievable shitshow, grow weary of “defending the indefensible” and start forcing a course correction. It is possible we are here now.

Which is why we need to be fully engaged and keep working as hard as we can. There will be two more Senate tariff votes in the coming days, perhaps as early as today. MAKE YOUR CALLS AND DEMAND YOUR TWO SENATORS ROLL BACK THESE TARIFFS, REOPEN THE GOVERNMENT, AND ENSURE SNAP IS FUNDED NEXT MONTH. If your Senators voted to repeal the tariffs yesterday thank them, and urge them to keep going.

New Navigator polling out this morning continues to show Trump and Republicans on the wrong side of the shutdown:

If there is any one data point that captures how much Trump’s powers of persuasion have ebbed it is this one - despite Trump’s extraordinary information superiority, only 29% of voters blame Democrats for the shutdown. This means 40% - 40%!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! - of his 2024 voters do not believe him when he blames the Democrats for the shutdown. He has just gone too far on too many things, and can no longer rally the country - or even his own voters - around the things that matter most to him.

Loved this clip of Senator Kelly on the Bulwark. Captures the sentiment of the moment - outrage at their ongoing betrayal of the American people and our Constitutional order:

Listen to this C-Span caller this morning.

Trump is real good at being overseas and running away from his responsibilities. He ought to get back here and start taking care of our country instead of calling everybody funny names. The Democrats are in their offices in the House, but where’s the Republicans? They’re still on a month-long vacation and getting paid.

Now, my friends, let’s make our calls and….

Let’s Close Strong And Win These November Elections!

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Winning The Fall - Support Our November, 2025 Candidates and Yes On 50

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Enjoy this message of thanks Abigail Spanberger sent to the Hopium community a few days ago:

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Our updated fundraising goals are now for the end of the year, December 31st, except for the 2025 races, which are now for Election Day, 2025.

Hopium members in CA/NJ/NY/PA/VA or wherever you have elections on November 4th - please vote on Day 1, or as early as you can, either by mail or in-person. When you vote early your name comes off campaign GOTV rolls allowing them to move on to lower propensity voters, which increases D turnout and makes it more likely we win. Voting early = another way to help us win.

Defending America, Winning The Big Arguments With Trump - We have two recommended actions today:

1 - Call Your Senators and Member Of The House And Demand They Act Upon Our Four-Part Agenda - We need to be loud people, very, very loud and make the case for our our emerging four part agenda. Demand that your Senators and House Member work to:

1. Roll back Trump’s terrible, illegal tariffs that are re-igniting inflation, driving up prices, shifting the tax burden from the wealthy to working people, hurting small businesses and farmers, reviving tyrannical “taxation without representation,” and alienating governments and people throughout the world and fully fund SNAP FFS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2. Defend our democracy, rule of law, and our liberties by blocking the expansion of ICE, restoring due process for immigrants across the country, vigorously defending the 1st Amendment, warring against his outrageous targeting of his domestic political opponents, and ending the use of the military on our streets and the unlawful occupation of our cities

3. Fight Trump’s war on science, higher education and our public health; reverse - not delay - the cuts to the ACA and Medicaid; support and co-sponsor Rep. Haley Stevens’ effort to Impeach and remove Robert Kennedy

4. Stand with Ukraine and our European allies, and far more forcefully challenge Trump’s traitorous efforts to sell out the US and the West to Russia and China

2 - 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. Be sure to check out our new discussion with Deborah Potter and Rachel Poliner who have passed resolutions in New Mexico and Boston. They offer practical advice on how to get a resolution passed in your own community.

Remarkably, members of this community have passed or are advancing 85 (!!!!) resolution projects in 23 states + DC. Can we get to all 50 states by the end of the year?

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! Please include reports of voting early and consider sending photos of your completed ballot or or your “I’ve voted” sticker to community@hopiumchronicles.com.

Keep working hard all, and remember Hopium is hope with a plan. We don’t just hope tomorrow will be better than today.

We do the work to make it so - Simon