Morning all. Before we begin just want to encourage folks to get to my new discussion with Senator Jon Ossoff when you can. It lifted my spirits and think it will lift yours too.
The World Isn’t Buying This Trump Strongman Bullshit - It’s been my view that we are entering a new phase of Trumpism here in the US where it is now impossible for reasonable people to ignore or wish away the clear material harm he is doing to our economy, our national security, our standing in the world, our global scientific leadership, our rights and freedoms, our democracy, to us, all of us, and to freedom-loving people throughout the world. There is no longer a place where one can pretend that unchecked this will all be OK. That we can win the election next year and everything will be fine, good again (a reminder that he launched an insurrection to prevent his removal last time). That there is anything but a hard path in front of us now.
Those places of soft comfort we go are really no longer available to us, and we must accept that the best - and perhaps only way - out is through. Simply, we must fight. And fighting for freedom and democracy should not be hard for us. It is what we Americans have been doing, successfully, for hundreds of years. It is who we are. And thus it is our obligation, our responsibility, our patriotic duty, our heritage to fight. When called previous generations of Americans answered. It is our turn now.
Russia’s sending of drones into Polish and NATO airspace last night should be a clarifying moment for our leaders.
Trump’s outrageous, traitorous appeasement of Putin has brought what appeasement, servility, and weakness always does - escalation and danger. As we discussed a few days ago Trump’s emerging national security strategy looks far more like surrender to Russia and China than war. Our adversaries have been emboldened by Trump’s idiocy, buffoonery, cowardice, greed and self-sabotage - as they should be. For America is already a shadow of what it was even a year ago, far weaker, isolated, despised, clearly led by a confederacy of dunces and now hurdling towards rapid decline as a global power. Fox News viewers may see a viral strongman when they look at the Trump but the rest of the world sees an imbecilic fool.
In recent weeks I’ve made recommendations to our leaders about ways they might be able to find a higher gear in this struggle against Trump, and offer one more today - we need some kind of national security council for our pro-democracy movement to far more forcefully challenge Trump’s selling out of the US and the West to China and Russia. It’s my hope that Leaders Schumer and Jeffries will encourage the ranking Members of the various foreign policy and national security committees to forge themselves into an ad hoc coordinating council that defends the America of the Four Freedoms in a time when it is being threatened and abandoned by the Trump regime. Our voices fighting for freedom here and around the world simply must get louder. The American people need to hear them. The freedom loving people of the world need to hear them. A loose ad hoc national security council for our movement is one way to bring that about. There are of course other ways too.
Imagine today if that the members of that council issued a joint statement denouncing Trump for his rancid appeasement strategy and called on him to restore our full throated support for Ukraine and our NATO allies that Trump has walked away from? Or to call on the restoration of all funding for the NIH, USAID and our universities - and the firing of Robert Kennedy - on national security grounds? Or to end the destructive tariffs for not only are they doing extraordinary harm to our economy but are turning the rest of the world against us? Or to end the whimsical use of America’s military against the American people themselves? That voice, the pro-democracy movement’s national security voice, simply is not loud enough now.
We not only need to do this for it is the right thing to do, but because it serves an important political purpose - it makes Trump weak not strong, and further undermines and degrades the strongman persona so essential to his hold over the Republican Party. Trump today is a failed leader. Almost nothing he has tried to do has succeeded. He is deeply unpopular and is underwater on every major issue now. Recent polling even has him underwater on crime and border security. Here’s CNN. The broader non-MAGA public just isn’t buying this strongman bullshit:
On his handling of crime specifically, recent polls vary, with the Reuters/Ipsos poll and a new Strength in Numbers/Verasight poll both finding approval ratings well below 50% on that topic – 43% approve of his handling of crime in the Reuters/Ipsos poll, 45% on “crime and public safety” in the Strength in Numbers/Verasight poll. Among registered voters in the Quinnipiac poll, 42% say they approve of Trump’s handling of the issue.
The economy is going to get worse. Prices are going to keep rising. Our health care system is buckling. Despite whatever rancid deal he cut with MBS energy prices continue to rise for consumers. His foreign policy has been a catastrophic failure. He is deeply corrupt, and shoving billions into his pockets. He is old and in declining mental and physical health. His powers are ebbing. And so, now, as a matter of strategy, we must focus on taking away that last thing that is holding him up with his coalition - that he is a strongman. We must make him weak not strong, a loser not a winner, a failure not a success, a villain not a hero.
Here is my quote from that new Greg Sargent article in the New Republic:
“Democrats need to attack this dimension of Trumpism—the essential story Trumpworld tells about him being ‘strong,’” says Democratic strategist Simon Rosenberg, who often argues for this. “The way they see politics is they operate in the strong/weak, winning/losing framework. We have to understand that and take it away from them.”
One critical way we can continue to degrade and undermine this strongman persona is for respected and influential national security voices to wage an intense campaign to explain to the American people that what Trump is doing is a threat to our national security, that he is making America weaker not stronger, that he is betraying the country and is doing anything but making us great again.
Challenging Trump’s selling out of America is not just what proud American patriots need to do, it is an essential political tactic to further weaken and degrade him. Doing so will makes it more likely we are more successful not just in winning future elections but in mitigating the enormous damage he is doing to all of us and the America of the Four Freedoms.
My New Interview With Senator Ruben Gallego - I sat down with our good friend Senator Ruben Gallego yesterday and am excited to bring our conversation to you this morning. This community was Senator Gallego’s biggest contributor in 2024, raising more than $700,000 for his campaign. Ruben won his seat despite Arizona being the worst performing battleground state for the top of the ticket - it was a huge achievement, and I am proud we played such a critical role in one of our most important wins last year.
As you will see our conversation gets cut short due to some technical issues but the core of our discussion is very important - the Senator tells us that he believes the Republicans have now lost all the ground they gained in 2024 with Hispanic/Latinos voters. That it is no longer “cool” to be a Trump supporter in Latino communities, and that Democrats now have opportunities in heavily Hispanic parts of the country that were not available to us in recent years.
To reinforce the Senator’s point here is this week’s Hopium break out of the Economist/YouGov weekly tracking poll:
This 31%-62% result is very similar to where Republicans were prior to their recent gains with Latino voters, and this all comes prior to SCOTUS horrifically greenlighting direct racial profiling of Latinos this week. As Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote her in dissenting opinion this week:
“We should not have to live in a country where the Government can seize anyone who looks Latino, speaks Spanish, and appears to work a low wage job. Rather than stand idly by while our constitutional freedoms are lost, I dissent.”
In a time of economic and political crisis for this community Democrats will need to make it very, very clear that we are on their side and fighting for them and their families.
Listen this timely interview with one of our good friends, register for our paid subscriber chat tonight, and now, let’s get to work people!
Let’s Stay Focused On Winning The Fall, Together
Support Our November, 2025 Candidates
Mikie Sherrill NJ Gov (2025) - $250,000 goal, $72k raised - Donate | Learn More | Volunteer | Watch my new interview with Rep. Sherrill
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Roy Cooper for NC Senate (2026) - $250,000 goal, $32,000 raised- Donate | Learn More | Volunteer | Watch my interviews with Gov. Cooper and NC Dem Chair Anderson Clayton
Jon Ossoff GA Senate (2026) - $250,000 goal, $63k raised - Donate | Learn More | Volunteer | Watch my inspiring new interview with Senator Ossoff
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Our updated fundraising goals are now for the end of the year, December 31st, except for the 2025 races, which are now for Election Day, 2025.
For more on Hopium’s approach to elections check out 1) the many important wins we had together last cycle 2) my big recommendations to the family coming out of the 2024 elections about what we need to do now 3) my latest thinking on where we are and the path forward for the Hopium community.
Take Action, Express Your Love Of Country Through Good Works - We are prioritizing two actions today:
1 - Call Your Senators and Member Of The House And Demand They Act Upon Our Four-Part Agenda - We need to be loud people, very, very loud and make the case for our our emerging four part agenda. Demand that your reps work to
Roll back Trump’s terrible, illegal tariffs that are re-igniting inflation, driving up prices, shifting the tax burden from the wealthy to working people, hurting small businesses and farmers, reviving tyrannical “taxation without representation,” and alienating governments and people throughout the world
Block the expansion of ICE, restore due process and end the use of the military on our streets
Fight Trump’s war on science, higher education and our public health; reverse - not delay - the cuts to the ACA and Medicaid; demand the removal of extremist Robert Kennedy from HHS. Yes, we need to FIRE HIM
Stand with Ukraine and far more forcefully challenge Trump’s traitorous efforts to sell out the US and the West to Russia and China
2 - Bring “Resolutions Of Condemnation” To Your Community - 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. Be sure to check out our new discussion with Deborah Potter and Rachel Poliner who have passed resolutions in New Mexico and Boston, and offer advice on how to get a resolution passed in your own community.
Remarkably, members of this community are now advancing 75 (!!!!) resolutions projects in 23 states +DC. Can we get to all 50 states by the fall election?
Last night the tow of Corrales, New Mexico debated and passed their resolution. A preview of the resolution can be found in this article from a local new site. In considering the resolution last night Councilor Bill Woldman said:
"I want to thank the Mayor and administration for the comprehensive and important statement on our democracy. This is not a partisan statement, but rather an acknowledgment of a significant deviation from 250 years of practice of the Separation of Powers. While all politics may not be local, it is important for local governmental bodies to acknowledge threats when they exist and support our Congressional Representatives in their resistance to executive branch overreach. Thank you."
Keep up the great work proud, plucky patriots of the Hopium community!!!!
Finally, 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. Great to see!
Keep working hard all, and together let’s go out and win the fall - Simon
