The US Economy SHRANK In The 1st Quarter, Leader Jeffries Gives 100 Days Speech, Enlarging The Circle Of Defiance

Alert! - The Wyden-Paul-Kaine Resolution To Roll Back The Tariffs Is Coming Up For A Senate Vote Tonight! - Let's Hit The Phones People!

Morning all. We just got the q1 GDP report and it was far worse than expected. Our economy shrank in the first quarter. Trump has officially cratered an economy that was “the envy of the world” under Democrats. And this data comes from before Trump’s disastrous and unconstitutional global tariffs were levied on April 2nd.

Trump 2.0 is failing. The country is suffering. He’s crashed our economy and is dismantling the federal government itself. Our alliances are torched, our standing in the world has plummeted, and he is making Russia and China great again. He is unraveling our public health system and waging an extraordinary war on science, academia and knowledge. He is “whitewashing the most painful parts of our history.” He is attempting to end the Constitutional order and make himself king, a tyrant. He is overseeing unprecedented, Russian levels of public corruption. A majority of Americans are now firmly opposed to him and his terrible regime. This thing is a fucking disaster and America needs to change course, find a better way, right now.

Trump is also unwell, delusional, drunk with power and authoritarian fantasies. It just isn’t clear that the understands what is happening around him any more. The interview Trump gave to ABC News yesterday was full of repeated moments of just out and out shocking levels of madness. He said inflation is down. Putin wants peace. The economy is fine. His terrible polls are fake news. He was deeply confused about what was happening with Abrego Garcia and other migrant cases. I could play many clips but let’s just watch this one. Nothing he says in here is true:

I could go on but it is all detail. We know the story. And it is why come here every day and fight, keep working together to enlarge the circle of defiance. Here are some things you can do today:

Watch House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries’ 100 days speech at 1030 ET. I am going to watch live. Please join me and encourage others to join us. Here’s the link and you can watch a recording of the speech there as well if you missed it live.

Watch/Listen to my recent conversations with Senator Chris Coons, Rep. Joe Neguse, MN AG Keith Ellison, Glenn Kirschner and Amy Spitalnick.

Call your Senators, particularly Republican Senators, and urge them to vote for the Wyden-Paul-Kaine resolution that will roll back these terrible tariffs - it is coming up for a vote tonight! If you live in Alaska, Kentucky or Maine it is critical that you call Senators Collins, Murkowski, McConnell and Paul and urge them to hold the line against these tariffs. These 4 voted with the Dems last month to roll back the Canadian tariffs and if we get them again we can, after today’s terrible GDP report, offer a serious rebuke to the President on his disastrous economic course.

And note that Politico is now reporting that Speaker Johnson has cracked the door open to House action on the tariffs:

Speaker Mike Johnson said Wednesday that Congress could intervene to curtail President Donald Trump’s global tariff regime — but only, he said, if there’s an “imbalance” in the relative powers of the executive and legislative branches.

“I think the executive has a broad array of authority that’s been recognized over the years” related to trade, Johnson said at an Axios event. “If it gets close to where the imbalance is there, then we would step in.”

Register for our paid subscriber gathering tonight at 7pm ET (here) and become a paid subscriber to support our important work, together.

Attend the DNC’s National Organizing Briefing tonight at 8pm ET. Learn more, register here.

Here are some inspiring words from Hopium community member Elizabeth T from daily paid subscriber chat:

The focus of my calls to my GOP NC senators is the fact that the ports on the west coast are empty and that we will soon have empty store shelves. I told them that it is not too late to step up and do the right thing, but that if they do nothing, these empty shelves will be millstone around their necks. I also mentioned how sickened I am that the mad king is fleecing the public by selling his crypto currency and access to him.

Thank you, Simon, and to all in this community! When I joined Hopium shortly after the election I was a wreck. I couldn't sleep, I felt sick, etc. I know I am not alone in this. While I am still scared, my dread has been channeled into action and it feels terrific! I feel like I am doing something important, something outside of myself, and I am proud.

The mad king/tsar and his team of evildoers has touched a deep moral core in me, and I draw on that every day to impel me to save this democracy that I love. This community has and continues to both feed me and fuel me. Stronger together!

Here are some other things we can do today. We are making progress my friends, true and meaningful progress, but man oh man do we have a lot of work to do:

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.

Another way to fight to get these tariffs rolled back is by checking to see if you state is one of the 13 who have sued to end the tariffs - Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Maine, Minnesota, Nevada, New Mexico, New York, Oregon and Vermont - and if your state is not among them call your Governor, Attorney General and state Senators and Reps and demand they join these legal challenges today.

To learn more about we need to fight these tariffs watch/listen to my interviews with Senators Tim Kaine and Chris Coons, MN AG Keith Ellison and economist Rob Shapiro. I remain convinced that fighting Trump on these terrible tariffs is our area of greatest opportunity in the coming weeks.

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

We also should keep calling to demand the return of Kilmar Abrego Garcia and others who have been wrongly imprisoned in Trump’s Salvadoran Gulag.

It is vital that all those fighting it out in the Courts - from the Judges to the plaintiffs - see that half of Congress has their backs and is fighting just as hard to uphold America’s Constitutional order as they are. It is time now for Congress to open up that Second Front we’ve discussed here, and be loud and proud and purposefully in upholding this oath:

I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter. So help me God.

3 - Lean Into The Growing Power Of Protests and Rallies And Let’s Keep Rallying The States - 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.

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. As I wrote Saturday, Trump may be waking to how badly Putin has played him on Ukraine, and just about everything else. So we need to keep the pressure on here everyone.

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.

1 - 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 $86,000 so far towards our June 30th goal of $250,000 - thank you all. Let’s keep working it for Abigail!

2- 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 $68,000 towards our $200,000 June 30th goal - thank you all!

3 - 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!

4 - 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 $28,000 - thank you all. Let’s be there for Senator Booker as he been there for us at this critical time.

5 - Help Hopium Grow - As Trump raises prices on just about everything, here we are cutting them and offering 10% off an annual Hopium paid subscription. Take advantage of this offer, and find how to give give gift subscriptions, here. Your financial support keeps Hopium coming at you with vim, vigor and a whole lot of love of country 7 days a week!

Keep working hard all. So proud to be in this fight with all of you - Simon