Morning all. I wake today pleased with the progress our movement is making, while also feeling the weight of having a destructive madman in the White House doing extraordinary harm to America and the people of the world (note that this post was sent to paid subscribers only a few minutes ago. This one is to our entire subscriber list. Comments should be made on that original post from this morning. Sorry for the error). Let’s get to it!
Building on the momentum from the weekend Job One today is contacting your Senators and House Rep and demand that they do everything they can to rescind Trump’s destructive, unconstitutional tariffs. For those of you with Republican representatives, it is very important that you be very loud today as we seeing significant early cracks in Republican Congressional support for the terrible tariffs. 7 Senate Republicans have signed on to a new bi-partisan bill from Senators Maria Cantwell and Chuck Grassley to give the Congress the power to review and rescind Trump’s tariffs. We need 6 more Senators for it to pass the Senate Here an excerpt of the press release from Cantwell’s office from over the weekend:
U.S. Senator Maria Cantwell (D-WA), a senior member of the Senate Finance Committee, and Ranking Member of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, introduced bipartisan legislation to reaffirm Congress’ key role in setting and approving U.S. trade policy. In addition to Sen. Cantwell, Sens. Chuck Grassley (R-IA), Jerry Moran (R-KS), Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), Mark Warner (D-VA), Mitch McConnell (R-KY), Michael Bennet (D-CO), Thom Tillis (R-NC), Peter Welch (D-VT), Todd Young (R-IN), Chris Coons (D-DE), Susan Collins (R-ME), and Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) have co-sponsored the bill. The Trade Review Act of 2025, modeled after the War Powers Resolution of 1973, would reestablish limits on the president’s ability to impose unilateral tariffs without the approval of Congress.
“Trade wars can be as devastating, which is why the Founding Fathers gave Congress the clear Constitutional authority over war and trade. This bill reasserts Congress’s role over trade policy to ensure rules-based trade policies are transparent, consistent, and benefit the American public. Arbitrary tariffs, particularly on our allies, damage U.S. export opportunities and raise prices for American consumers and businesses,” Sen. Cantwell said. “As representatives of the American people, Congress has a duty to stop actions that will cause them harm.”
“Congress has a duty to stop actions that will cause them harm.”
Amen to that Senator Cantwell!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
This sentiment in this release gets to the core of our A Letter to America project. It is important to understand that the 7 Republicans who have signed on to this bill are not doing so just to stop the damage being done to Americans and the people of the world, but to also explicitly challenge Trump’s repeated usurpation of Congress’ Constitutionally mandated authorities The bill Senator Tim Kaine passed with 4 Republicans - Collins, McConnell, Murkowski and Paul - on Wednesday night also went right to this place of challenging Trump’s assertion of the power to even levy tariffs at all. Nebraska Republican Don Bacon has introduced a companion to the Grassley-Cantwell bill in the House.
The Washington Post writes this morning about a new right-aligned non-profit that has filled suit challenging the constitutionality of the tariffs. Note the reminder that the President does not have the authority to raise taxes, only Congress does:
The alliance argues that Trump’s use of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) to justify the levies was unconstitutional because it does not authorize the president to impose tariffs; rather, it authorizes specific emergency actions, such as sanctions or freezing assets, to protect the nation from foreign threats. Trump also used the IEEPA to launch global “reciprocal” tariffs Wednesday.
“No prior president ever thought the IEEPA allowed him to set tariffs. Reading this law broadly enough to uphold the China tariff would transfer core legislative power,” NCLA President Mark Chenoweth said in a statement. “To avoid that nondelegation pitfall, the court must construe the statute consistent with nearly 50 years of unbroken practice and decide it does not permit tariff setting.”
Though the lawsuit does not take issue with Trump’s declaration of an opioid-related emergency, the NCLA says that the decision to impose wide-reaching tariffs as a response was made without legal authority.
“His China Executive Orders show no connection between the opioid problem and the tariff he ordered — much less that the tariff is ‘necessary’ to resolve that problem. The means of an across-the-board tariff does not fit the end of stopping an influx of opioids, and is in no sense ‘necessary’ to that stated purpose,” according to the complaint filed Thursday in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Florida, Pensacola Division. “In fact, President Trump’s own statements reveal the real reason for the China tariff, which is to reduce American trade deficits while raising federal revenue.”
My main point here is that the way the tariff debate is emerging on the Hill opens up a much broader front for Democrats to not only challenge Trump’s batshit crazy economic policies, but also his ongoing assault on the US government and our Constitutional order. As someone who has worked on trade and economic policy for more than 30 years I do not believe Trump even has the legal authority to do what he is doing, which makes this terrible moment that much more terrible. It’s why in making our case against this terrible tariffs we must open up that Second Front I’ve been talking about, and offer something akin to A Letter To America. Trump is mad with power, and become a danger to America and the entire world. He is asserting powers no leader in a democracy could ever have. He is acting lawlessly and outside the Constitution. He is disappearing legal residents without criminal records. He is illegally and unconstitutionally vaporizing entire government agencies and departments. He is breaking the Social Security system, jeopardizing the retirement of tens of millions of people. He’s gutting our public health and medical research institutions making us far more vulnerable to disease, pandemics and biological attacks for shits and giggles. He is abandoning treaties with our closest allies - some which he himself negotiated - and is persistently violating international law. He is letting America’s global guard down, on purpose, making it far more likely that a hostile foreign power launches some kind of devastating attack. He has created a rancid and traitorous “alliance” with Putin, our greatest enemy, himself a genocidal maniac.
Trump is mad with power, and become a danger to America and the entire world.
It is why we must be very loud today. Call/contact your Senators and Reps. Demand they put a stop to these tariffs and this insane, illegal and unconstitutional rampage Trump has been on. We need to build on the momentum from this weekend and work to create the first true Congressional repudiation of Trump’s recklessness and lawlessness. As I’ve been writing here Congressional Republican opposition to Trump has been growing, and little cracks can become big cracks. Courage, even for Republicans, can become contagious. Congress needs to hear a roar of disapproval from the American people today. Do you part and call/contact your Senators and Reps right now.
The Video From Washington - I recorded the video at the top of this post at the Saturday Hands Off protest in Washington, DC. If you turn the sound on you can hear the voice of the great patriot Jamie Raskin, who gave a stirring and inspiring speech. Thanks to everyone who participated this weekend, and to the many Hopium members who self-reported their experiences and sent photos. I will be sharing photos taken by members of the Hopium community every day here for the foreseeable future as I have so many!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Related Hopium Conversations
Dr. Rob Shapiro on Trump Declares War On The World (the tariffs)
David Rothkopf on Trump’s Dangerous Foreing Policy
David Leopold on Yes, People Are Disappearing in America
Rep. Don Beyer on Fighting DOGE More Effectively
Jon “Bowser” Bauman on Trump’s Attacks on Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid
Casey Michel on The Unprecedented Corruption Of The Trump Regime
Dr. Michael Mann on The Right’s War on Science
Jane Kleeb on The New Leadership Team’s Plans For The DNC/State Parties
Hopium House 7 Discussions with Reps. Derek Tran and Janelle Bynum
Recommended Hopium Actions and Campaigns - We’ve launched some new actions and campaigns, and are for now retiring a few old ones…here we go!
1 - Demand Congress Take Back Their Tariff Authority From Trump - Call/contact your Senators and House Member today and demand they override and roll back these incredibly dangerous and destructive tariffs.
2 - Fight The Trump-Musk Attack On Our Government, Our Privacy And Our Constitutional Order - Encourage your Senators and Representatives to follow Senator Booker’s lead and let Facts be be submitted to a candid world in a joint Senate-House Letter to America; to hold their own hearings; to file criminal referrals for Musk and his malicious posse to DOJ/FBI and amicus briefs in the court cases regarding the usurpation of their Constitutional authorities or file suits of their own (House Dems began doing this several weeks ago). Encourage them to hold a daily morning press conference to more aggressively challenge Musk’s ransacking of the USG that is making America less prosperous, less healthy, less safe and far less respected in the world.
3 - 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. Demand that Trump not let his Saudi meeting w/Putin become our Munich; demand that he not become our Neville Chamberlain; demand that we rejoin our European and NATO allies in support of Zelenskyy and democracy here and everywhere. The country is not with Trump’s embrace of Putin and we must be very loud, very, very loud now. See my new essay on the need to support our allies and not surrender to Putin, and my new 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.
4 - Our Work In The States, The Spring Offensive - I am going to rework this section as so much has happened since we called on our community members to organize in the 17 most vulnerable Republican House seats. Rallies and protests have exploded across the country and the “Hands Off” events this weekend drew extraordinary crowds. The DNC/House Dems/State Parties have kicked off People’s Town Halls in all 50 states. I have come to believe that we should be leaning on our state and local electeds to pursue these organized “condemnations” of the Trump regime and their betrayal of America. Let’s start talking now about what we are going to do on July 4th, a day with all of a sudden much more importance.
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 in every red state 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.
Next, for those wanting to do more traditional political/campaign work we have four Hopium-backed efforts we're rallying behind:
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 lines of the Trump/Musk assault on the federal government.
We’ve raised more than $74,000 so far towards our June 30th goal of $250,000 - thank you all. Let’s keep working it for Abigail!
Get Anderson Clayton And The NC Dems Fight The GOP’s Attempt To Steal A Supreme Court Seat - A few weeks ago we began a campaign to raise $50,000 for 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. Watch my new interview with Chair Clayton to get an update on the fight over the Supreme Court seat and her plans to win elections and counter Trump this year.
We’ve raised $33,000 so far towards our June 30th goal of $50,000 - thank you everyone!
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 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 $56,000 towards our $250,000 June 30th goal - thank you all!
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 $15,000 - thank you all. Let’s be there for Senator Booker as he been there for us at this critical time.
Keep working hard all. So incredibly proud to be in this fight with all of you - Simon
