Morning all. Let’s start with a recording and transcript of the Hopium live interview I did yesterday with Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison. You can find both above. This is the second in our new series highlighting the important work of the 23 Democratic Attorneys General who are fighting and winning against Trump in court again and again. As we’ve been discussing here, the states and Federalism itself have emerged as a very important bulwark against Trump’s savage attack on the US government, our liberties and our almost 240 year old Constitutional order.
We cover a lot of ground in this wonderful and uplifting interview, including the new suit filed this week by 12 states, including Minnesota, challenging the legality and Constitutionality of Trump’s terrible tariffs. And while Attorney General Ellison is proud of the success the AGs have had, he reminds us that “we don’t believe this fight will be won in a court of law, it will be won in a court of public opinion” and urges us to build on the very real progress we’ve made in “enlarging the circle of defiance” in recent weeks and keep working as hard as we can.
Enjoy our discussion and let’s acknowledge for a moment the remarkable contributions of Minnesota Democrats - Gov. Walz, our new national Chair Ken Martin, #3 Dem Senate Leader Amy Klobuchar and AG Ellison. What a wonderful and patriotic crew doing their part for all of us every day.
The True Cost of Musk’s Malevolent Ransacking Of The US Government - The NYT has published a remarkable - and tragic - new analysis of Musk’s pillaging of the Capital (gift link):
President Trump and Elon Musk promised taxpayers big savings, maybe even a “DOGE dividend” check in their mailboxes, when the Department of Government Efficiency was let loose on the federal government. Now, as he prepares to step back from his presidential assignment to cut bureaucratic fat, Mr. Musk has said without providing details that DOGE is likely to save taxpayers only $150 billion.
That is about 15 percent of the $1 trillion he pledged to save, less than 8 percent of the $2 trillion in savings he had originally promised and a fraction of the nearly $7 trillion the federal government spent in the 2024 fiscal year.
The errors and obfuscations underlying DOGE’s claims of savings are well documented. Less known are the costs Mr. Musk incurred by taking what Mr. Trump called a “hatchet” to government and the resulting firings, agency lockouts and building seizures that mostly wound up in court.
The Partnership for Public Service, a nonprofit organization that studies the federal work force, has used budget figures to produce a rough estimate that firings, re-hirings, lost productivity and paid leave of thousands of workers will cost upward of $135 billion this fiscal year. At the Internal Revenue Service, a DOGE-driven exodus of 22,000 employees would cost about $8.5 billion in revenue in 2026 alone, according to figures from the Budget Lab at Yale University. The total number of departures is expected to be as many as 32,000.
Neither of these estimates includes the cost to taxpayers of defending DOGE’s moves in court. Of about 200 lawsuits and appeals related to Mr. Trump’s agenda, at least 30 implicate the department.
“Not only is Musk vastly overinflating the money he has saved, he is not accounting for the exponentially larger waste that he is creating,” said Max Stier, the chief executive of the Partnership for Public Service. “He’s inflicted these costs on the American people, who will pay them for many years to come.”
Mr. Stier and other experts on the federal work force said it did not have to be this way. Federal law and previous government shutdowns offered Mr. Musk a legal playbook for reducing the federal work force, a goal that most Americans support. But Mr. Musk chose similar lightning-speed, blunt-force methods he used to drastically cut Twitter’s work force after he acquired the company in 2022.
“The law is clear,” said Jeri Buchholz, who over three decades in public service handled hiring and firing at seven federal agencies, including NASA and the Defense Intelligence Agency. “They can do all the things they are currently doing, but they can’t do them the way they’re doing them. They can either start over and do it right, or they can be in court for forever.”
……..
Based on the latest available information, the DOGE cuts have targeted at least 12 percent of the 2.4 million civilian employees in the federal work force. But a wide gap exists between DOGE’s planned cuts and the number of people who actually leave.
Buyouts and firings initially trimmed about 100,000 workers — thousands fewer people than those who typically retire in a year, according to Office of Personnel Management figures. At least one-quarter of those 100,000 workers have been rehired at full pay, most after judges ruled that their firings were illegal and some after Mr. Musk said DOGE had “accidentally” sacked workers safeguarding nuclear weapons, ensuring aviation safety and combating bird flu and Ebola.
It is why Congressional Democrats should be making criminal referrals to the Department of Justice over the many crimes Musk has committed, and our state AGs should be looking to see if they can charge Musk and his malicious crew with crimes and/or sue him for damages. One of our most important projects in the days ahead is to rebrand DOGE as a malevolent criminal enterprise and not a virtuous “reform” effort.
Trump Is Weakening America And Making Russia And China Great Again - For time and space reasons I won’t be able to fully explore this theme this morning but here we go…..looking back at these last few weeks it is very clear that whether through his idiocy, compromise or a combination of the two, our ridiculous leader is executing a strategy - regardless of his bullshit and blather - that is dramatically weakening our country while strengthening the global position of both China and Russia.
America is experiencing an historic, extraordinary and I think traitorous betrayal of the country by Trump and leaders of his Administration.
In our conversation earlier this week Senator Chris Coons, just back from a trip to Asia, goes into detail on how Trump’s arbitrary and aggressive tariffs, the abrupt and hostile elimination of our aide programs to 100 countries and his contempt for our allies and the well-being of humanity has damaged America’s standing the world and elevated China’s. As he told us:
“We are creating a Trump sized hole in our national security that the Chinese are walking through. And frankly, it is the dumbest, most self-destructive, most foolish thing I can imagine”
This week Trump made it clear that he had adopted the Russian position in the ongoing Ukrainian “peace talks,” putting the US in an unimaginable place of potential confrontation with Europe and even NATO. Here is how The Guardian is playing remarks Trump made to Time magazine late yesterday:
Donald Trump has said in an interview with Time magazine that Crimea “will stay with Russia” as part of peace negotiations with Ukraine.
Trump accused Zelenskyy on Wednesday of prolonging the “killing field” by refusing to surrender the Russia-occupied Crimea peninsula as part of a possible deal. Russia illegally annexed that area in 2014.
Zelenskyy has repeated many times during the war that recognizing occupied territory as Russian is a red line for his country.
Here’s an excerpt from a Wednesday Politico story, Did Putin Write This?
Ukrainian and European officials, as well as pro-Ukraine Americans close to the Trump administration, have reacted to the president’s proposed Ukraine-Russia peace plan with a mixture of shock and despondency.
They say President DONALD TRUMP’s plan, which entails a lifting of sanctions and recognition of Russia’s control over Crimea while offering no U.S. involvement in any post-war peacekeeping force, heavily favors Russia. Trump’s plan also calls for barring Ukraine from joining NATO — all stipulations that are nonstarters for Ukraine.
“Did Putin write this for him?” quipped one NATO official when asked their thoughts on Trump’s plan. Another diplomat, when asked for their reaction, responded only with an ‘exploding head’ emoji.
The story goes on to remind us that Congress passed and President signed a law in 2022 forbids the US and Trump from formally recognizing any stolen Ukrainian territory as Russian. And it adds this:
The prevailing view among most national security officials in NATO and many pro-Ukraine advocates in Washington is that a peace deal that hands Russia too much will only pause the war — not end it. It would only buy Russia more time to regroup and likely launch a deadlier invasion in the near future. They argue that the United States should be surging more arms to Ukraine and tightening the sanctions noose around Moscow to force Russian President VLADIMIR PUTIN into more concessions from a position of strength.
“But regrettably, the current U.S. approach seems to center on demanding concession after concession from Ukraine without applying additional pressure on Russia, the aggressor in this war,” said DAVID SHIMER, who helped run Russia and Ukraine policy on the National Security Council during the Biden administration.
Here is the cover of The Economist this week:
It’s why we have to keep fighting everyone. For as I discussed in my video this week, this image, and this understanding, is not the America we want to leave to our kids and grandkids…..
Now, let’s do some good, together…..
Recommended Hopium Actions and Campaigns - Let’s focus on four current actions to channel our love of country and our frustrations into even more progress today:
1 - Demand Congress Rescind Trump’s Terrible Tariffs - Call/contact your Senators and House Members today and demand roll back these incredibly dangerous and unconstitutional tariffs immediately. Insist they sign on and advocate for the new bi-partisan resolution that would be repeal the tariffs just introduced by Senator Kaine, Paul, Wyden, Shaheen, Welch, Warren and Schumer. It will be coming to a Senate vote in the coming days.
Watch my new interview with Senator Time Kaine to learn more, applaud the critically important law suit brought by Governor Gavin Newsom and the State of California suit challenging the Constitutionality of the these terrible tariffs, and be pleased that 12 other states now have now joined California. These tariffs are without question the greatest abuse of power by an American leader in our history and we must fight with everything we got to roll them back.
2 - Fight The Trump-Musk Attack On Our Government, Our Privacy And Our Constitutional Order - We must continue to encourage our Senators and Representatives to let Facts be be submitted to a candid world by:
Penning a joint Senate and House Letter to America, inspired by our Declaration Of Independence
Following Senator Booker’s lead in creating good trouble on the House and Senate floors, holding more aggressive and strategic daily press conferences and keep the Shadow Hearings coming
Hitting the trail like Bernie, AOC, Senator Chris Murphy and Rep. Maxwell Frost, and leading with courage like Senator Chris Van Hollen
To file law suits, amicus briefs and criminal referrals against the unconstitutional ransacking of the government of the United States of America
Call to demand the return of Kilmar Abrego Garcia.
For more on the critical importance of us far more aggressively challenging Trump’s abandonment of the Constitutional order, his attack on science and higher education and his torching of our “inalienable rights” see my new discussion with Stuart Stevens and Rick Wilson of Lincoln Square; and my recent interviews with Rep. Don Beyer of Virginia, Dr. Michael Mann of the University of Pennsylvania, Anna Bower of Lawfare, Amy Spitalnick of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs and immigration lawyer David Leopold.
3 - The Growing Power Of Protests and Rallies, Rallying The States, The Spring Offensive - So much has happened since we called we called on our community members to organize in the 17 most vulnerable Republican House seats a few months ago. Rallies and protests have exploded across the country. The “Hands Off” events and the Bernie-AOC tour have drawn extraordinary crowds. The DNC/House Dems/State Parties have kicked off People’s Town Halls in all 50 states. I hope that people who attended some of the many Town Halls this week can self-report their experience today.
I have also come to believe that we should be calling on our state and local electeds to introduce, debate and pass “articles of condemnations” of the Trump regime and the clear harms they are bringing to community and every person in the country. Federalism can become a much bigger bulwark against Trump if our state and local electeds rally to the moment. For more on the critical role of the states now watch my new interview with Arizona AG Kris Mayes and today’s discussion with Keith Ellison.
Let’s also start talking now about what we are going to do on July 4th, a day with all of a sudden much greater importance.
4 - 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. See my recent essay on the need to support our allies and not surrender to Putin, and my 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.
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 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.
For those wanting to do more traditional campaign work, we have the following four Hopium-backed efforts we're rallying behind. I also want to note that this community raised $142,000 for Susan Crawford in our great WI win, and over $100,000 to get Ken Martin off to a strong start at the DNC. When the Hopium community is called, you answer again and again.
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 linesof the Trump/Musk assault on the federal government.
We’ve raised more than $84,000 so far towards our June 30th goal of $250,000 - thank you all. Let’s keep working it for Abigail!
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 Reps 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 $66,000 towards our $200,000 June 30th goal - thank you all!
Help Allison Riggs, Anderson Clayton And The NC Dems Stop The GOP From Stealing A State Supreme Court Seat - A few weeks ago we began a campaign to raise $50,000 for Justice Allison Riggs, 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.
If you want to go deeper into the GOP’s rancid effort to steal a Supreme Court seat watch my new interviews with Justice Riggs and Anderson Clayton, the inspiring Chair of the North Carolina Democratic Party.
We’ve raised $44,000 so far towards our June 30th goal of $50,000 - thank you everyone!
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 $26,000 - thank you all. Let’s be there for Senator Booker as he been there for us at this critical time.
Keep working hard all. Trump is stumbling, struggling, flailing and failing and we just need to keep working as hard as we possibly can - Simon
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