Happy Thursday everyone. Last night I got together with members of this proud, plucky, and patriotic community for a special edition of our weekly gathering, something I called The Fall Of Orban Dance Party. While there wasn’t a lot of dancing there was plenty of celebration. For Orban’s dramatic fall is major blow to Trump, Vance, Putin, and the Greater MAGA project, and another sign of the decay, rotting, crumbling and weakening of the Trump regime. A video recording and transcript of our discussion, including our lively Q & A session, is above.
That’s the major message in my talk this week - the Trump project is failing, floundering, and falling apart. Consider…..
Trump was already in a weakened position due to the failure of his economic strategy, the harms he has brought to farmers and small businesses across the country, the rejection of his ICE terror regime/mass deportations, our collective revulsion at the Trump-Epstein scandal, his unprecedented corruption, and his cuts to health care and food programs while giving his friends enormous tax breaks. He was already historically unpopular and Democrats have been overperforming and winning elections of all kinds across the country even in red places in red states. Then he launched an illegal, unpopular, and failed war in Iran, one that has thrown the whole world and our own economy into a profound crisis.
In our posts these last few weeks we’ve reviewed the data, and it’s ugly. Inflation soared to over 10% on annualized basis last month:
The total economic costs to the world of Trump’s failed war now rivals the global financial crisis of 2008-2010, and COVID:
And the regime has started to truly crumble and fall apart under the weight of it all. Noem, Bondi, Bovino, Kent all gone. Prominent right wing media figures are in open rebellion against Trump. Vance’s Pakistani peace talks and salvage efforts in Hungary failed, spectacularly. Zelenskyy, Trump’s nemesis, has emerged as the courageous and respected leader of the free world, with Peter Magyar joining him as a powerful symbol of the power of people to triumph over Greater MAGA and autocracy. Democrats had huge, blowout performances in Georgia and Wisconsin last week, and saw polling showing us ahead in AK, ME, NC, and OH - enough to flip the Senate. Trump’s demands to fully fund DHS/ICE and pass the SAVE Act were publicly rejected by Thune and Johnson. His madness is becoming undeniably worse, as he threatened genocide in Iran, has repeatedly attacked the Pope and the Fed Chair, and keeps posting blasphemous AI images of himself.
Their efforts to put lipstick on their big ugly pig of a bill sputtered this week as they could not break through given these all failures, his increasingly erratic behavior, and the extraordinary levels of legislative dysfunction, paralysis and infighting on the Hill as the regime continues to decay and lose it’s grip on the city.
This is the lead story on Politico right now:
Insider DC publications are full of stories of Republicans coming to terms with the gravity of their political situation now. New fundraising reports out this week show Democratic candidates dramatically outraising their GOP counterparts across the US. Hundreds of millions of dollars of GOP SuperPAC spend, some starting in a few weeks, have been announced. Most of what we know so far will be spent in states like Alaska, Iowa, and Ohio where Republicans never thought they would be have to be defending. Peter Magyar’s blow out win over MAGA poster boy and close Trump-Vance ally Victor Orban was a sign of the deepening rot of the Trump project. Every Republican candidate in a competitive race here in the US noted how much effort Trump and Vance put into saving Orban, and how it not only failed but Magyar is now going scorched earth against the criminals and traitors who drove Hungary into the ground. Watch this video clip of Magyar on Orban state television yesterday, a channel similar to Fox News though funded directly by the state. Imagine an American politician speaking like this:
Here’s another headline from Politico this week:
And that is perhaps the most important thing our town here in DC is waking up to this week - Republicans have nothing to run on in 2026, and keep getting forced to walk the plank on deeply unpopular, failed madman MAGA stuff. Consider that right now Republicans in both chambers will be forced in coming days to vote for Trump’s illegal, failed war and soaring gas prices and inflation; to vote for tens of billions of dollars for DHS/ICE without any reforms, essentially green-lighting the policies that killed Americans in cold blood on our streets; to make the incredibly unpopular big ugly bill that threw money at the rich and left the rest of us with less the centerpiece of their campaign pitch.
“It’s all we have to run on” and what they have to run on is worse than a lump of MAGA coal.
We ended the evening talking about my post yesterday:
and how this idea that the awfulness of Trumpism could help teach rising generations throughout the world the lesson the Founders tried to teach us 250 years ago - that democracy is a far better path than autocracy and oligarchy and very much worth fighting for; and how in Hungary, in Ukraine, and in our coming elections what we may we be seeing is a spark that brings us a “new birth of freedom” here and everywhere. I closed out the night by reading the Gettysburg Address, revisiting Lincoln’s powerful challenge to dedicate ourselves to “the great task remaining before us” -
that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom - and that government of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish from the earth.
That’s what we talked about last night. If you found all this useful please hit like so more folks connect with these insights, share this post and video through your networks, and now it is time…..
To Get To Work Everyone!!!!!!
Join us for our Vote Yes phonebank tonight at 530pm ET and help us close strong in these final days of this vital campaign. Register here, invite friends, watch my new interview with VA Speaker Don Scott, and and yes we can do this people!
Winning The Midterms, Competing In Red States and Red Places, Expanding The Map
Hopium’s Winning The House Campaign (2026) - $570,300 raised, $1,000,000 goal (new ambitious, audacious even, q2 goal) - Donate to all twelve of our endorsed House challengers with one click | You can meet and get to know these House flipping candidates by watching our recently recorded Hopium interviews with each.
So far we’ve sat down with Jamie Ager (NC-11), Christina Bohannan (IA-01), Mayor Paige Cognetti (PA-08), Rebecca Cooke (WI-03), Sean McCann (MI-04), Jo Mendoza (AZ-06), Janelle Stelson (PA-10), Shannon Taylor (VA-01), and should rounding out the rest in the coming weeks. If you are looking for inspiration this weekend watch a few of these interviews - I promise they great candidates will get you excited about our opportunities this November!
Huge shout-out to the team at FridayAction. Our recent event together has now raised $97,000 for our House candidates - amazing, amazing stuff! That total is included in our new remarkable fundraising total, as is the money given to each individual House candidate in recent weeks.
James Talarico For Texas - $57,700 raised, $250,000 - Donate | Volunteer and Learn More | Enjoy my inspiring interview with Rep. Talarico as he fights to turn Texas blue
Mary Peltola For Alaska Senate - $83,100 raised, $250,000 goal - Donate | Volunteer and Learn More | Enjoy my uplifting conversation with Mary Peltola as she fights to turn Alaska blue
Winning Ohio - $120,100 raised, $250,000 goal - Our new campaign splits contributions evenly among Sherrod Brown, the Acton/Pepper ticket, and the Ohio Democratic Party. Donate today and help us turn this critical 2026 battleground blue, and watch my new discussion with our good friend David Pepper, now our candidate for Lt. Gov in Ohio. This total includes $21,00 sent by a Hopium community member directly to each of our three Buckeye State partners!
Roy Cooper for NC Senate (2026) - $104,500 raised, $250,000 goal - Donate | Learn More | Volunteer | Enjoy my new discussion with Gov. Cooper as he fights to turn North Carolina blue
Jon Ossoff GA Senate (2026) - $166,800 raised, $250,000 goal - Donate | Learn More | Volunteer | Enjoy my inspiring conversation with Senator Ossoff
Hopium’s Audacious Expansion Fund - $518,600 raised, $750,000 goal (new stretch goal) - Join our campaign that has helped expand our map by investing in the Democratic Parties of Alaska, Florida, Iowa, Maine, and Texas, all now central battlegrounds in the 2026 election. Catch interviews with the five intrepid state chairs leading their troops into battle this year - will get you fired up!
Many thanks to two generous Hopium community members who have audaciously donated $20,000 to each of our five state parties over the past two years.
Advocate For The Hopium Agenda/Pass Resolutions Of Condemnation In Your Community
There are a few more ways to go to work in the coming days - call your leaders and advocate for elements of our working, ever evolving Hopium Agenda; bring resolutions that condemn our Mad King and lets facts be spoken to a candid world to your state or local government.
Here’s our working Hopium Post-Iran Disaster Agenda:
Work to end this new gulf war and Trump’s Imperial global ambitions
Support Ukraine and Europe, not Russia
Roll back the new, illegal tariffs
Rescind the Trump tax cuts, claw back the extra ICE funding, fund the IRS so it can collect the taxes the rich are hiding from us
Make the US a clean energy superpower, fight for true energy independence, and lower utility and energy prices for the American people
Rein in ICE, end Mass Deportation
End Trump’s destructive war on science, research, our health scare system and our public Health
Make clear to American farmers that we want to end the failed war, repeal the terrible tariffs, find legal pathways for farm workers, and make health care and energy more affordable
This week our calls should clearly focus on reining in the illegal war in the Middle East and ICE here at home, and rescinding the tariffs that are doing so much damage to our economy.
And please use the paid subscriber chat to self-report the good trouble you make each day.
Keep working hard all. We have a country to save and an election to win, together - Simon
