"Trump" The Brand Is Failing, New Interview With Ken Martin, And Dems Open Up A Big Enthusiasm Advantage
Democrats Have A Big Opportunity Now, And We Need To Seize It, Together
Morning all. Was another wild, eventful and destructive week in our politics. And as we say here two things can be true at the same time 1) Trump and his allies continue to break things that will be hard if not impossible to repair and we must continue to act with great urgency 2) “Trump” as a strongman brand is struggling and in trouble.
In my new video and three posts (here, here, here) I make the case that we need to increasingly see Trump’s political project as failing, and his stumbles and struggles as a big opportunity for the pro-democracy movement. Review them when you can this weekend. I share a lot of data to back up my argument, and also just can’t stop thinking about this nugget from the new WSJ bombshell article:
Donald: We have certain things in common, Jeffrey.
Jeffrey: Yes, we do, come to think of it.
While Trump had his worst week of polling this year, and we have strong leads in the NJ and VA governor’s races (encouraging), my favorite bit of the data from the week is this graph from CNN showing Dems opening up a huge enthusiasm advantage:
DNC Chairman Ken Martin discusses the energy he’s feeling as he travels the country in our conversation that I shared late yesterday. Get to it when you can this weekend. It’s an important and uplifting window in the big ambitions Ken and his team have for revitalizing the Democratic Party across the country. You can watch/listen to our conversation on Hopium or catch it on YouTube, Apple Podcasts and Spotify too. As many have questions about what the DNC is doing these days please consider sharing this discussion through your networks and encourage people to hear directly from our new Chair.
When I spoke to the Democratic State Chairs in Little Rock a few weeks ago I shared this slide:
Spend some time with this data. When I look at it, and combine it with the enthusiasm data above, it feels like our road back may not be as far away as it feels right now……
Now, Let’s Get To Work People!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Support Hopium’s Priority Candidates - Our revised fundraising goals are for Labor Day, remarkably, less than two months away, with the November elections now less than four months away. Early voting starts in Virginia starts in two months - September 19th!
Mikie Sherrill NJ Gov (2025) - $200,000 goal, $37k raised - Donate | Learn More | Volunteer | Watch Our Interview
Abigail Spanberger VA Gov (2025) - $250,000 goal, $153k raised - Donate | Learn More | Volunteer | Watch Our Interview
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We also have ongoing campaigns to support Ken Martin’s DNC, the North Carolina Democratic Party and to thank Senator Cory Booker for his spirited leadership in a time of enormous challenge. Lots of choices - do something to support these great candidates and parties today!
Here’s our working, draft Dem agenda:
1 - Create A Growing Economy That Works For All, Fight Trump’s Tax and Price Increases - Roll back the terrible tariffs, lift this onerous tax on working people, stop this illegal and unconstitutional abuse of power that is doing so much economic and geopolitical damage to America; fight his raising prices on food, health care and energy and just about everything else
2- Rein In ICE, Protect Our Liberties - Put guardrails on ICE, no more masks or plainclothes agents, mandatory use of warrants and due process, no third country extraditions and a roll back on the additional and unnecessary funding provided in the reconciliation bill
3 - Keep America Safe - Fully fund FEMA, NOAA, FAA, DHS Intel, our cyber defenses etc - keep Americans safe, do not let our guard down against threats foreign and domestic. The unnecessary and tragic death of dozens of young girls should inspire us to action
4 - Protect The Nation’s Health - fire Kennedy, restore our vaccine regime, stand up for science and our world leading universities, fully fund NIH and all ongoing medical research, rescind the tax cuts for millionaires and billionaires to properly fund Medicaid and our public health
5 - Stand With Ukraine and Europe, Not Russia - Implement the Russia sanctions, ensure the world understands that America stands with Ukraine and Europe not Putin and global autocracy
……and the current set of actions we can take, together:
1 - Call your Senators and Reps To Demand They Revoke Trump’s Terrible Tariffs - Congress simply must take back its tariff authority that Trump has illegally and unconstitutional seized and dangerously abused; and at the very least they must stop what will be Trump’s ruinous new tariff increases slated to start on August 1st. Trump’s economic plan has failed, and we need to find a better way forward.
2 - Get The Military Off Our Streets, Fight Trump’s Inhumane Immigration Escalation - Contact your Rep and Senators to demand they fight Trump’s illegal use of the National Guard and Marines in California. Encourage Democrats at all levels of government to a stand with Governor Newsom and the California - for Trump is not just attacking California, he is attacking the rights and freedoms of all of us. See my recent interviews with David Leopold Joe Garcia, Leon Krauze and Senator Chris Van Hollen for more.
In the coming days I want to work with all of you to do something more explicit about demanding the end of masked, plain clothes “police” snatching people here in America without warrants.
3 - Join Our Resolutions Project - Inspired by the tactics of our Founders, learn about how Hopium members are advancing “resolutions of condemnation” in their communities across the country and consider bringing this initiative to your state, country or city/town. Our resolutions passed in two New Mexico counties two weeks ago, and we now have 46 resolutions moving in 15 states. Amazing work!!!!
4 -Volunteer To Help Your State and/or Local Democratic Parties Stand Up Voter Registration Efforts And Support “Organizing Summer” - In the presentation he made to our community recently Tom Bonier made a persuasive case that Democrats must once again make partisan voter registration a national priority. State and local Democratic Parties are in the planning stages to take this on. Members of our community should consider contacting their state and local parties and offer to help stand up these vital efforts in the coming months.
For more on the need to make partisan voter registration great again see my recent interview with Jane Kleeb, Nebraska Democratic Party Chair, DNC Vice Chair and President of the Association of Democratic State Committees.
The DNC, the DSCC, the DCCC, the DGA and the ASDC have announced a major new “Organizing Summer” project. Learn more about it here. I hope to have someone join us in the coming days to help us understand how we can support this exciting new initiative. Organizing to win these 29 Republican held House districts will be one of most important collective priorities for the next 16 months:
5 - Stand Up For Science - Sign on to the critically important Bethesda Declaration and watch my interview with Stand Up For Science’s Executive Director Colette Delawalla. Signing on to the Declaration is one concrete way you can take action today.
Another is to back over 700 employees of the EPA who have taken a courageous stand challenging EPA Administration Lee Zeldin. You can learn more and sign your name in support of this remarkable effort here. Note that over 140 of the signatories of this letter have now been put on Administrative leave. We to keep fighting everyone!
6 - Grow Hopium - We’ve set a goal of trying to grow the Hopium community from the 152,000 we are now to 175,000 by Labor Day. Do what you can to encourage your friends, family and colleagues to become a summer subscriber to Hopium, free or paid. If each current paid subscriber brings in just one new subscriber this summer we will hit our goal.
To encourage the growth of our community annual paid subscriptions are 10% off through Labor Day. Use that link to buy gift or group subscriptions, and join our new referral rewards program too.
Please self-report your activities to our daily paid subscriber chat. These reports help inspire all of us to do more and fight harder! Been impressive to see how many of you remain involved in local, in person protests of all kinds in your communities. Keep it up!!!
Keep working hard all. Proud to be in this fight with all of you, and a fight it surely is - Simon
While traveling around New England this summer visiting family and friends, I attended a US Naturalization event in Northampton, MA on July 4th and participated in the Good Trouble Rally in Boston this Thursday. It’s nice to find community wherever I go. I continue to call my FL “reps” every day to remind them of the cruelty they are inflicting on their constituents and on all of us hoping that something will get through and help to break the fever.
Indivisible is planning to put up billboards in Red states to keep it in the forefront of people's minds that the Trump regime and their R enablers are doing everything they can to keep the Epstein files from becoming public. If you want to contribute to those billboards (since this is not a budgeted expenditure), Indivisible's website https://indivisible.org/ describes this very important initiative and how to contribute.