This Trump Thing Is Rotten, Everyone Knows It, And People Have Had Enough

“We’re preparing for the bottom to fall out,” a GOP operative working on midterm races told Playbook.

Morning all. Something significant may be happening to Trump and Trumpism. The rot, the failure, the incompetence, the corruption, the ugliness of it all has just become so overwhelming that it is now OK to talk about it in public. Self-censorship is ebbing. It’s a thing, out there in the world, impacting everything we do. Everyone is now talking about it, trying to make sense of it, and come up with strategies to deal with it. Let’s review headline from across legacy media this morning. It’s as if they are reporting on a natural disaster, but that disaster is the Trump Presidency and Greater MAGA:

Tankers Are Being Blown Out of the Water. See How Mideast Strikes Are Piling Up (WSJ)

The Rising Number of Uninsured Patients Starts to Hit Hospitals (WSJ)

Airports, nursing homes and schools brace for disruption without Haitian workers (Washington Post)

Medicare drug coverage costs expected to rise as federal subsidies end (CBS)

US economy slowed more than expected as the Iran war took hold (ABC News)

The bond market isn’t buying what Fed Chair Warsh is selling (Reuters)

Israel rejects Gaza plan that Trump unveils with fanfare, as Hamas says it has accepted the plan (JTA)

State Department map of Africa mislabels every country at AIDS conference (NBC News)

Trump defends DOJ weaponization fund and attacks Cornyn, further imperiling Blanche nomination (CNN)

Trump’s poll numbers just took another turn for the worse (Washington Post)

The MAGA Media Machine Is Fracturing (NYT)

A GOP backlash brews in South Carolina over Trump’s support for Lindsey Graham’s sister (Washington Post)

‘The Boss Wants This Money’: Inside Trump’s Unprecedented Fundraising Operation (WSJ, incredible account of Trump’s unprecedented corruption)

Infantino increasingly embattled after senior adviser resigns over World Cup sell-off plans (The Guardian)

It’s like everywhere, all at once, everyone is waking up to what a corrupt fuck up he is. And people have had enough.

We’ve seen it in the polling this week. Trump hit new bottoms in poll after poll. Here’s my updated poll chart:

Trump went from -23 to -25 in FiftyPlusOne’s tracker this week. This is big movement in just one week of new data:

Yesterday Fox News released polls showing Cooper up 9 in NC and Talarico up 3 in Texas, 51%-48%. Just wow. Democrats have not won a statewide election in Texas since 1994. Here’s our updated round up of recent Senate polling. It’s bad out there for the Rs right now, really bad:

I think of all the signs of rot and failure out there the most significant may be what happened to the generic ballot data this past week. The generic ballot has been bouncing around between +3 and +6 Dem for months now. This past week we got this data below, suggesting that as that GOP operative told Politico last week that bottom may actually be falling out right now for the Rs:

Two good related reads this morning:

• G. Elliott Morris explains why at this point even if Trump can somehow get gas prices down against it’s unlikely to improve his standing (as we’ve already seen in recent months)

• Paul Krugman explains why Wall Street now understands that Fed Chair Kevin Warsh is an un-serious, Trumpian hack - The Bond Market Doesn’t Like Bullshit

You can feel “the fed up with the bullshit” sentiment in three new ads. The first is from Governor Josh Shapiro in Pennsylvania:

The next is from Paige Cognetti in PA-8:

The third ad is from Sherrod Brown in Ohio:

Look at what’s happened to the image of Trump’s buddies in big tech. There may actually be something out there more unpopular than Trump:

People have had enough.

I dive even deeper into our current moment in my weekly talk and analysis, Trump’s Regime Has Failed, His Standing Continues To Erode, And We Are Getting Stronger.

And yes, as they stumble and fall, we are getting stronger, which is why my friends it is…..

Time To Get To Work Everyone!!!!!!!

Winning The House and Senate In 2026

Special Fund To Rush Troy Jackson $100,000 By August 10th - Donate Today! | $67,600 raised, $50,000 original goal, $100,000 new stretch goal | Friends we hit our original $50,000 goal in the first 24 hours of this new campaign to get Troy Jackson the resources to staff up, build out his campaign, and beat Susan Collins. Amazing - thank you all!

We aren’t stopping here - this early money really matters, and I want to now try to get to $100,000 by Friday, August 7th. We can do this people, and be sure watch our new interview with Troy.

Our Winning The House Campaign - $1,027,500 raised, $1,250,000 goal (new stretch goal) - Donate | Donate to all twelve of our initial wave of House challengers with a single contribution split twelve ways | Get to know Jamie Ager (NC-11), Christina Bohannan (IA-01), Paige Cognetti (PA-08), Rebecca Cooke (WI-03), Elaine Luria (VA-02), Sean McCann (MI-04), Jo Mendoza (AZ-06), Chaz Molder (TN-05), Jonathan Nez (AZ-02), Janelle Stelson (PA-10), Shannon Taylor (VA-01), and Sarah Trone Garriott (IA-03) by watching our recently recorded Hopium interviews.

Friends, if these twelve courageous candidates win, the House will flip, even with Callais and their rancid mid-decade redistricting. So eyes on the prize here everyone!

Winning The House - The Second Wave Fund (Newly Expanded) - $231,400 raised, $500,000 goal - Donate | We’ve launched a second House fund, one supporting candidates who’ve emerged from recent primaries and need a bit more help. Our newly expanded list now features Rebecca Bennett (NJ-07), Bob Brooks (PA-07), Cait Conley (NY-17), Johnny Garcia (TX-35), Bob Harvie (PA-01), Dr. Richard Pan (CA-06), Denise Powell (NE-02), Bobby Pulido (TX-15), Manny Rutinel (CO-8), Dr. Amish Shah (AZ-01), Randy Villegas (CA-22), and Marni von Wilpert (CA-48).

A donation to the Second Wave Fund is split evenly among these twelve, and more as other worthy candidates emerge from their primaries. Our total above includes money we’ve raised for directly for each candidate. You can watch interviews with those who’ve interviewed so far here. We are off to a great start here everyone!

Winning The Senate - $598,100 raised, $1,000,000 goal - Donate | This new fund splits a single donation to our six candidates must likely to flip a Senate seat this November - Sherrod Brown (OH), Roy Cooper (NC), Mary Peltola (AK), James Talarico (TX), Troy Jackson (ME), and Josh Turek (IA). Our working total includes what we’ve raised for these six so far through direct donations to their campaigns. You can watch our interviews with each of these great candidates and/or contribute directly to any of them directly here.

Expanding The Map - Investing And Winning In Key Battleground And Expansion States

Winning Georgia - $27,800 raised, $250,000 goal - Donate | This new fund splits a contribution three ways among Senator Jon Ossoff, gubernatorial candidate Keisha Lance Bottoms, and the Georgia Democratic Party | Watch my new interview with Georgia Dem Chair Charlie Bailey to get a terrific overview of the opportunities we have in Georgia this cycle

Winning Iowa - $29,900 raised, $250,000 goal - Donate | Our Winning Iowa fund splits a contribution three ways - to Josh Turek for Senate, to our gubernatorial candidate Rob Sand, and to the Iowa Democratic Party | Watch my new interview with the great Chair of the Iowa Democratic Party Rita Hart to get an overview of why this is a year of such opportunity in Iowa

Winning Maine - $79,200 raised, $75,000 goal - Donate | We set up this fund to help the Maine Dems get through our nominating process. With this community’s strong response we put up almost a third of the resources needed for what became a very successful process to pick a nominee. We had a big return on this investment - thank you all! | Watch our interview with the inspiring Executive Director of the Maine Dems Devon Murphy-Anderson | We are keeping this fund up for we behind in Maine and need to keep building our momentum there

Winning Ohio - $184,100 raised, $250,000 goal - Donate | Our campaign splits contributions evenly among Sherrod Brown, the Acton-Pepper ticket, and the Ohio Democratic Party and its terrific Chair, Kathleen Clyde

Hopium’s Audacious Expansion Fund - $640,100 raised, $1,000,000 goal - Donate | 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 | Contribute to all five state parties with one contribution split evenly among these five critical battlegrounds | Catch interviews with the five intrepid state chairs leading their troops into battle this year - will get you fired up!

A Few More Things To Do

Let’s work to make sure everyone you know is Voting Early this year; learn more about how we can best protect our elections this November and ensure a peaceful transfer of power in January; bring our Resolutions Project to your community; fight for Hopium’s Agenda today and everyday; become a paid subscriber to Hopium to help us grow this community of proud, plucky patriots.

Many are asking about the news coming from the DNC these days. Rather than commenting I will let Chair Ken Martin speak for himself through a new memo he just published, The DNC Is Building a Democratic Party That Can Win the Moment and Win the Future. It is well worth your time.

Many in our community have found this essay from Nathan Newman (himself a DSA member), The Sane NYC DSA vs the Crazy National DSA- A Guide for the Perplexed, helpful in coming to a better understanding of the Democratic Socialists of America. I also link to DSA Co-Chair Megan Romer’s appearance on Fox News this week that many of you have shared. It creates even more context.

Please use the paid subscriber chat to self-report the good trouble you make each day.

Keep working hard everyone. We have a country to save, and elections to win, together! - Simon