Sunday Hopium - Trump Is Desperate, Depraved, Corrupt, Deeply Unwell, And Guilty As F-ck

Not sure what else there is to say

Happy Sunday all. All three kids are home and Hopium is heading into a slower Holiday tempo now even though in the Trump era nothing seems to ease up (by design of course). I hope you get to slow down these coming weeks, rest up, recharge and get ready for our year of opportunity next year.

A few Sunday notes for you…….

Trump Is Guilty As F-ck - I think the events of the last few weeks have taught us two important things:

• Russia, Russia, Russia was a clear-eyed and prescient warning

• Trump is at the center of the Epstein scandal, not its periphery, and is now leading the greatest and most depraved, desperate, lawless, buffoonish- cover up of major crimes in our nation’s history

Either warrants his resignation or removal.

Still Working On A Big Piece - Still have a big picture thought piece I’m working through that I hope to wrestle to the ground over the break. It will draw from this recent commentary if you want to follow along:

• It’s Not A Presidency. It’s A Crime Spree

• 2026 Is Shaping Up To A Year Of Opportunity For Us

• Trump Begins The Rebrand. Are We Ready?

• Both Sane And Insane - Coming To A Better Understanding Of Trumpism So We Can Challenge It More Effectively

I end the year thinking about this graph that shows during 2023-2024, despite us spending billions of dollars, Trump repaired his broken brand and made the 2024 election competitive. Our collective commitment must be that we are not going to let that happen again next year.

Real Clear Politics, Trump job approval, average. Black = approve. Red = disapprove.

Dive In Our Year Of Great Conversations - We’ve had a series of really terrific conversations of late - Governor Wes Moore, youth voting expert and pollster John Della Volpe, Governor Jay Inslee, Ruth Ben-Ghiat, Texas Dem Chair Kendall Scudder and of course our great 2026 candidates and party committee leaders. Head to our Podcast tab on the site for easy access to these wonderful conversations or catch them YouTube, Apple Podcasts and Spotify too.

Make Hopium Stronger In 2026 - There are several ways you can help make our community stronger and give the gift of Hopium this holiday season:

• Take advantage of the 10% discount for an annual paid Hopium subscription through 12/31 and become a paid Hopium subscriber for the all important 2026 election year

• Invite your friends, bring in new subscribers, earn rewards

• Buy holiday gift or group subscriptions for colleagues, friends, and family

• Hit “like” on our posts and videos. This will encourage the algorithm to push our work to more people on the Substack app

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

Note we are very close to hitting our year end goals for our new intrepid House candidates and our Audacious Expansion Fund - chip in to either before the end of the year if you can. Thank you everyone!!!!!

Winning The Midterms - Support Our 2026 Candidates

• Roy Cooper for NC Senate (2026) - $59k raised, $250,000 goal - Donate | Learn More | Volunteer | Enjoy my conversation with Gov. Cooper

• Jon Ossoff GA Senate (2026) - $104k raised, $250,000 goal, - Donate | Learn More | Volunteer | Enjoy my inspiring conversation with Senator Ossoff

• Hopium Winning The House Campaign (2026) - $43,000 raised, $50,000 goal - Donate to all four endorsed House challengers with one click | Learn More | Enjoy our new conversations with Christina Bohannan (IA-01), Mayor Paige Cognetti (PA-08), Jo Mendoza (AZ-06), and Janelle Stelson (PA-10)

Expanding The Senate and Electoral College Maps, Winning In Red States and Red Places (2026-2032)

• Hopium’s Audacious Expansion Fund - $246,000 raised, $250,000 goal - Join our new campaign to expand our map by investing in the Democratic Parties of Alaska, Florida, Iowa, Maine, and Texas | Donate to all five state parties in a single contribution | Enjoy my conversations with Alaska Chair Eric Croft, Florida Chair Nikki Fried, Iowa Chair Rita Hart and Texas Chair Kendall Scudder | Many thanks to two generous Hopium community members who have audaciously donated $10,000 to each of our five state parties!

In three new essays (here, here, here) I talk about how one of the ways we win the 2026 midterms is by providing early support to our candidates and parties to allow them to staff up, be loud, define the terms of the debate now, before the inevitable onslaught on AI slop, Russian disinfo, and Trumpian lies funded through bribes and corruption wash across the land. The midterms could be won or lost in these next few months - not in the fall of 2026 - and we need be fighting now with everything we got.

Winning The Big Arguments With Trump, Defend Our Democracy - We have two recommended actions today:

1 - Call Your Senators and Member Of The House And Demand They Act Upon Our Five-Part Agenda - We need to be loud people, very, very loud and make the case for our now five part agenda:

1. 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; demand Congress rebuke/issue a no confidence vote on his current efforts to force Ukraine to surrender

2. Congress must stand forcefully for rule of law in the Caribbean and the Pacific - these illegal strikes must end; no war can be waged without Congressional approval; there must accountability for those who have broken the law

3. 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

4. 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; ending the use of the military on our streets and the unlawful occupation of our cities; stopping the unprecedented corruption; and by forcing the Administration to finally comply with Congress, end the rancid cover up, and release all of the Epstein files

5. 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

2 - Celebrate America, Our Constitution, Our 250th Birthday By Bringing Our Resolutions Project To Your Community - Next year, on July 4th, America celebrates it’s 250th birthday. We need to make this holiday, a celebration of our Declaration Of Independence from a mad king, our day, and not allow it to become his.

One way we can do this is by bringing our Resolutions Project to your community or state. Imagine if by July 4th of next year a large number of towns, counties and states had passed formal resolutions, in the spirit of our Declaration of Independence, defending our Constitution and condemning the “injuries,” “abuses,” and “usurpations” of our mad king. For as our Founders wrote in the Declaration:

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.

So far Hopium members have introduced or passed resolutions in 85 communities in 23 states. In the coming days we will be convening to discuss how to bring this campaign to more places and start planning to Own The Fourth next 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!

Happy Holidays all and may we spend as little time thinking about him as possible in these coming weeks.

For the opposite of love isn’t hate. It’s indifference - Simon