Morning all. Remarkably I start the day a bit more optimistic than I’ve been in some time. I explain why in my new video, recording and transcript, above. Let me try to summarize where my head is at right now here…..
I think Trump and the Republicans have gone too far, and are making consequential mistakes. They have overplayed a weak hand. The public is not buying what they are selling; their agenda is already doing real harm to the country and the American people; things will get worse; we have 16 months now to relentlessly, loudly, tell this story to the American people; and we need to go offense, operate from strength, and go win the big argument with MAGA, mitigate the damage they are doing and regain as much as power as we possibly can.
In these first six terrible months of Trump they have told us who they are and what they want - they want our country to be poorer, weaker, less safe, less healthy and less free. The agenda is clear. There is no American greatness or a better tomorrow. Their way is a diminished country, with fewer opportunities for our people, an end to our democracy, and a nation less able to chart our course in a competitive world. They want more for them and less for all of us. They cannot run away from who they are and what they are doing. There isn’t any way to put lipstick on this Trumpian pig. And unlike 2024 we cannot shirk from our responsibility to tell this part of the story. For the first step in defeating Trumpism is to make sure every voter available to us understands exactly who they are and what they mean for our nation’s future.
The passage of the big ugly gives us an opportunity to go tell this bigger story about this rancid agenda of sabotage, plunder and betrayal. We are no longer limited in our comms and story telling to the elements of the big ugly. We must now in fact integrate the elements of the big ugly into their broader agenda and attack it on all fronts. They have betrayed us and we can and must find a better way, together.
The tragedy in Texas has started a national debate about their “more for me, less for all of you” agenda. The return of measles has given us an opportunity to talk about their assault on our health care. Trump’s ongoing tariff fiasco allows us to talk about his core betrayal of working people by raising prices not lowering them. His attempt to create a secret police gives us an opportunity to talk about his authoritarian fantasies and abandonment of the Constitutional order here in American. The upcoming debate over Congress’ Fiscal Year 2026 budget gives us an extended opportunity to explain the harms of their agenda to the American people. Democrats in state and localities across the country can start to immediately organize town halls, hearings and other community conversations to talk to their constituents about what the big ugly and the broader GOP agenda means for them (and we need to help them do this). For it is no longer notional or a promise. It is here. And people are dying. The economy is slowing. Prices are rising. Our debt is exploding. Masked men are disappearing people into foreign and domestic gulags. Measles has returned. The world is laughing at us. They’ve given themselves huge tax cuts while levying one of the largest tax increases in history on working people. Our leader is a fucking painted clown, a joke, an impulsive and out of control fool, being enabled by unprecedented cowardice in what was once the Party of Lincoln and Reagan.
We have to go on offense now and tell our story because it is clear the country is not buying what they are selling - thankfully. As I’ve been writing over these past few weeks all of his attempts to get his flagging poll numbers up have failed - the immigration escalation, the sad birthday parade, the bombing of Iran, the passage of the big ugly - nothing has moved the needle. He remains remarkably unpopular, and the groups who swung to him late and gave him the election have wandered from him.
Their inability to make their big ugly popular, and their continued inability to get his poll numbers up should give us some confidence that we can compete and win against them over the next 16 months even with with their ongoing information superiority. There is just a limit to the bullshit, and a majority of the country just isn’t playing along.
Finally, as we mount this next phase of our ferocious opposition we must better understand how he plays the game. Trump sees politics as a struggle between strong and weak, winning and losing, success and failure. We must contest this space and this understanding the way we contest “issues” like health care, tariffs and immigration. We must make him, together, weak, a loser, a failure, a big blubbery baby man, anything, anything but a strong man. We must deny him this positioning, and in the process we must become strong, the winners, successful. We must be strong, not weak. Winners not losers. Successful, not failures. To defeat him we must contest, aggressively, the greatest source of his strength - this absurd construct of him as a powerful, strong, effective leader fighting with all he’s got for the country. We must pull the curtain back from the Wizard; show the Emperor has no clothes; we must, simply, break the spell.
Look at this make up FFS! This is a photo of a clown, not a President.
In the coming days I’ll be taking my emerging understanding of the moment into a new set of concrete actions we can undertake. I want to be clear - what comes next is going to be hard. Victory is not assured. ICE has become a serious threat to our liberties and all of us. But I think Trump and the Rs have overplayed a weak hand; they’ve gone too far; the country is rejecting where they are taking us; they keep losing in court and the circle of defiance continues to grow; he is old, impulsive, crazy and making mistakes; his acolytes are bumbling and unserious people; even their big “victory lap” week this has turned into an ongoing shitshow. I am more confident today, despite it all, than I’ve been in some time that we can triumph. I am not scared of them. Nor should you be. While it is summer we need to stay in the game, peeps. There are things we can and must do, now. I spell out some of them below. Let’s get to work. We have a big opportunity now and we need to seize it. We have a country to save, and a future to reclaim for our kids and grandkids. Let’s get to work, and if you like the video and this message please share it with others…..
Now, Let’s Get To Work
Support Hopium’s Priority Candidates - Friends, you all rallied these last few days. We hit our $25,000 June 30th goal for our newly endorsed candidates Rep. Mikie Sherrill and Senator Jon Ossoff - thank you! Our revised fundraising goals are for Labor Day, remarkably, only two months away, with the November elections now only four months away. We can do this people!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Mikie Sherrill NJ Gov (2025) - $200,000 goal, $34k raised - Donate | Learn More | Volunteer | Watch Our Interview
Abigail Spanberger VA Gov (2025) - $250,000 goal, $151k raised - Donate | Learn More | Volunteer | Watch Our Interview
Jon Ossoff GA Senate (2026) - $200,000 goal, $33k raised - Donate | Learn More | Volunteer
Hopium House 7 (2026) - $250,000 goal, $159k raised - Donate | Learn More, Volunteer, Watch Our Interviews
We also have ongoing campaigns to support the new DNC, Anderson Clayton and the North Carolina Democratic Party and to thank Senator Cory Booker for his spirited leadership in a time of enormous challenge. Lots of choices - do something to support these great candidates and parties today!
Go Deeper - Be sure to catch our recent discussions with Senator Elissa Slotkin, Rep. Mikie Sherill, MI AG Dana Nessel, Anne Applebaum, Tara McGowan and Charles Gaba. Remember you can find all of my interviews/podcasts on the Hopium site under Podcast and on YouTube, Apple Podcasts and Spotify too.
Join us at 215pm ET tomorrow for what will be a great discussion with practicing immigration attorney and expert David Leopold.
As I mentioned I’m in the process of reworking our collective activities, and today have a new number 1. Always feel free to review my broad set of recommendations on our collective path forward in this post with highlights from my post-elections memos…..
1 - Call your Senators and Reps To Demand They Stop Trump’s Terrible Tariffs and Pass The Bi-Partisans Russia Sanctions Bill - I will be fleshing this out in coming days but Congress simply must take back its tariff authority that Trump has illegally and unconstitutional seized and dangerously abused; and pass the bipartisan bill (with 82 Senate cosponsors) that would increase sanctions on Russia.
2 - Get The Military Off Our Streets, Fight Trump’s Inhumane Immigration Escalation - Contact your Rep and Senators to demand they fight Trump’s illegal use of the National Guard and Marines in California. Encourage Democrats at all levels of government to a stand with Governor Newsom and the California - for Trump is not just attacking California, he is attacking the rights and freedoms of all of us. See my recent interviews with Joe Garcia, Leon Krauze and Senator Chris Van Hollen for more.
In the coming days I want to work with all of you to do something more explicit about demanding the end of masked, plain clothes “police” snatching people here in America without warrants.
3 - Join Our Resolutions Project - 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. Our resolutions passed in two New Mexico counties two weeks ago, and we now have 44 resolutions moving in 14 states. Amazing stuff!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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.
For more on the need to make partisan voter registration great again see my recent interview with Jane Kleeb, Nebraska Democratic Party Chair, DNC Vice Chair and President of the Association of Democratic State Committees.
Last Monday the DNC, the DSCC, the DCCC, the DGA and the ASDC announced a major new “Organizing Summer” project. Learn more about it here. I hope to have someone join us in the coming days to help us understand how we can support this exciting new initiative. Organizing to win these 29 Republican held House districts will be one of most important collective priorities for the next 16 months:
5 - Stand Up For Science - Sign on to the critically important Bethesda Declaration and watch my interview with Stand Up For Science’s Executive Director Colette Delawalla. Signing on to the Declaration is one concrete way you can take action today. Another is to back over 700 employees of the EPA who have taken a courageous stand challenging EPA Administration Lee Zeldin this week. You can learn more and sign your name in support of this remarkable effort here.
6 - Grow Hopium - We’ve set a goal of trying to grow the Hopium community from the 152,000 we are now to 175,000 by Labor Day. 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.
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 surely is - Simon
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