Trump's Profoundly Un-American Activities, Defeating Hegseth, 2 More DNC Forums This Week

On Monday, January 20th, The Nation Will Celebrate An Inspiring American - Martin Luther King Jr - Let's Be Loud And Proud

Good morning all. Last year Donald Trump became an adjudicated rapist. Last Friday the next President became a convicted criminal. From this morning on he will also always be known as an insurrectionist, an American President who committed one of the gravest crimes possible in a democracy - an attempt to overturn a Presidential election by force.

From the NYT this morning:

Jack Smith, the special counsel who indicted President-elect Donald J. Trump on charges of illegally seeking to cling to power after losing the 2020 election, said in a final report released early Tuesday that the evidence would have been sufficient to convict Mr. Trump in a trial, had his 2024 election victory not made it impossible for the prosecution to continue.

“The department’s view that the Constitution prohibits the continued indictment and prosecution of a president is categorical and does not turn on the gravity of the crimes charged, the strength of the government’s proof or the merits of the prosecution, which the office stands fully behind,” Mr. Smith wrote.

He continued: “Indeed, but for Mr. Trump’s election and imminent return to the presidency, the office assessed that the admissible evidence was sufficient to obtain and sustain a conviction at trial.”

…….

The report contained an extensive justification for pursuing the prosecution, given what Mr. Smith called Mr. Trump’s “unprecedented criminal effort to overturn the legitimate results of the election in order to retain power.”

The Republican-controlled Senate begins hearings for Trump’s nominees today, including for the rancid extremist, Pete Hegseth, who is without question one of the most unfit nominees for a serious Cabinet position in our history.

Everyone reading this post should call their two Senators and House member today and insist they do everything they can to block Hegseth, and Trump’s three other unacceptable nominees - Gabbard, Kennedy and Patel. Together this community can generate tens of thousands of calls, and these offices need to hear from us.

From The Guardian:

Extremism experts are sounding the alarm about Pete Hegseth, Donald Trump’s pick for secretary of defense, whose writings and online presence reveal someone immersed in a culture of rightwing Christianity, political extremism and violent ideation.

The Fox & Friends host, who has served in the US army but has no experience in government, drew shock from Pentagon officials when Trump nominated him. Hegseth’s books on American culture and the military, his commentary on Fox and his frequent posts on social media showcase his far-right ideology. On these platforms, Hegseth telegraphs paranoia and anger toward “leftists”, an ultra-masculine Maga persona and apparent revulsion toward service members who do not fit his vision – including women.

“The thing that really worries me, is both the ideology of Christian nationalism and what that’s going to mean for the kind of policies he tries to put in place for the defense department,” said Thomas Lecaque, a historian focusing on religion and political violence.

Researchers who focus on the Christian right were quick to flag Hegseth’s tattoos, which feature a tapestry of symbols widely embraced by Christian nationalists, including a Jerusalem cross on his chest, an American flag with 13 stars partly obscured by an assault weapon below his shoulder and the words “Deus Vult” (“God wills it”) on his biceps.

Deus Vult is “a first Crusade battle cry”, said Lecaque. “There is no other way you can interpret this. This is not some warm and fuzzy, ‘we should, you know, pray and do acts of service’ – this is a call to religious violence.”

I also found these articles from MSNBC, PBS and The Guardian useful. From The Guardian story (and yes, Hegseth wants to give Europe to Putin):

“The defense of Europe is not our problem; been there, done that, twice,” Hegseth writes, adding: “Nato is a relic and should be scrapped and remade in order for freedom to be truly defended.”

Here is an excerpt from Senator Jack Reed’s opening statement in the Hegseth hearing this morning:

Make your calls people.

While the President will be giving a formal televised farewell address tomorrow night at 8pm ET, yesterday he went to the State Department and delivered a speech recapping his foreign policy achievements, including the strengthening of NATO and the Western alliance. It is an important counter to Trump’s ongoing betrayals of the country and everything that has made America great. CNN reports:

President Joe Biden on Monday defended his foreign policy achievements in office, offering his own first draft of history on how his presidency has affected security at home and US relationships abroad as he prepares to depart a career in public service spanning more than half a century.

Biden sought to frame his presidency as a transformational one for American power abroad, saying in a capstone foreign policy address that he was handing off a nation better-positioned to compete in a new era to President-elect Donald Trump than the one he inherited from Trump four years ago.

“New challenges will certainly emerge in the months and years ahead, but even so, it’s clear my administration is leaving the next administration with a very strong hand to play, and we’re leaving them and America more friends, stronger alliances. These adversaries are weaker and under pressure. An America that once again is leading, uniting countries, setting the agenda, bringing others together behind our plans and missions,” Biden said in remarks at the State Department, one week before Trump takes the oath of office for a second term.

He heralded his administration’s actions, saying – in an implicit critique of Trump – that under his leadership, “The United States is winning the worldwide competition compared to four years ago. America is stronger. Our alliances are stronger, our adversaries and competitors are weaker. We have not gone to war to make these things happen.”

You can watch President Biden’s speech here:

In a new FT column, Trump risks turning the US into a rogue state, Gideon Rachman reminds us of the global stakes of the Hegseth hearing today and of Trump’s profound and belligerent illiberalism:

Trump’s defenders and sycophants are treating the whole thing as a huge joke. The New York Post proclaimed a new “Donroe Doctrine” — the 19th-century message to Europeans not to meddle in the western hemisphere — with Greenland relabelled as “our land”. Brandon Gill, a Republican congressman, smirked that the Canadians, Panamanians and Greenlanders should be “honoured” at the idea of becoming Americans.

But the rights of small nations are not a joke. The forcible or coerced takeover of a country by a larger neighbour is the biggest alarm bell in world politics. It is a signal that a rogue state is on the march. That is why the western alliance knew it was crucial to support Ukraine’s resistance to Russia. It is also why the US organised an international alliance to eject Iraq from Kuwait in the early nineties.

…….

As for grand strategy — the reality is that Trump’s threats to Greenland, Panama and Canada are an absolute gift to Russia and China. If Trump can claim that it is a strategic necessity for the US to take over Greenland or the Panama Canal, why is it illegitimate for Putin to claim that it is a strategic necessity for Russia to control Ukraine? If Gill can claim it is America’s “manifest destiny” to expand its frontiers, who could object when Xi Jinping insists it is China’s manifest destiny to control Taiwan?

Both Russia and China have long dreamt of pulling apart the western alliance. Trump is doing their work for them. Just a few weeks ago, it would have been beyond the Kremlin’s wildest dreams to see Canada’s main news magazine running a cover story on “Why America can’t conquer Canada”. The idea of European leaders invoking the EU’s mutual-defence clause against the US — not Russia — would also have seemed like fantasy. But these are the new realities.

Even if Trump never makes good on his threats, he has already done enormous damage to America’s global standing and to its alliance system. And he is not even in office yet.

Here’s the art the FT produced for Rachman’s essay.

There are two more DNC candidate forums this week:

Tues, 8pm ET - Chorus Forum. Chorus is proud to host a first-of-its-kind, creator-led forum for the Democratic Party Chair candidates. RSVP here.

Hosted by online personalities Brian Tyler Cohen, Elizabeth Booker Houston, Leigh McGowan (Politics Girl), Adam Mockler, and Zackory Kirk, the Chorus DNC Chair Forum will be a conversation that bypasses traditional media gatekeepers, allowing you to hear directly from the candidates about their plans to revitalize the Democratic Party, achieve electoral victories, and advocate for issues that improve the lives of all Americans.

Thurs, 130pm ET - DNC and Politico Officer’s Forum, Detroit, Michigan. On Thursday, January 16, the DNC and POLITICO will co-host an in-person candidate forum for DNC officer elections in Detroit, Michigan focused on the Midwest region. The forum will be moderated by POLITICO journalists Eugene Daniels, Dasha Burns, Jonathan Martin, Elena Schneider, and Holly Otterbein.

The forum will begin at 1:30 pm ET and feature candidates for Chair, Vice Chair, Vice Chair of Civic Engagement and Voter Participation, Secretary, Treasurer, and National Finance Chair. The forum will also be livestreamed on the DNC’s YouTube Channel, on POLITICO.com, and on POLITICO’s YouTube Channel.

Be sure to catch our recent Hopium contributions to the “what happened, what comes next” discussion in our family now:

• My new video and post - Raising Our Game, Building The Next Thing, Going 24/7/365 (Includes my working 7 takeaways, recommendations and to dos)

• A recent post that talks about ways of modernizing the DNC - Dem Party and Electeds - Getting Louder and Going 24/7/365

• Our 9 interviews with elected officials, party and thought leaders including Ben Wikler, Ken Martin, Ruben Gallego and Abigail Spanberger

A few more things:

• Paul Krugman reminds us that unlike most red states California sends far more money to Washington than it gets in return

• Judd Legum has a terrific new overview of Trump’s new Chief of Staff’s prolific lobbying career and the conflicts it brings

• Trump’s bat-shit crazy agenda is already raising prices here and around the world, and we need to be saying so, loudly

• We’ve endorsed Abigail Spanberger for Governor of Virginia. Watch my recent interview with her, learn more, volunteer and consider donating to her campaign. Our goal is to raise $100,000 for her by March 31st. We’ve already raised $15,000 - thank you all!

• For those coming up for renewal for your paid Hopium subscription please make sure your payment info is current. Paid subscribers keep this place going and the Hopium flowing!

• The next Hopium live paid subscriber get together will be Wednesday, January 22nd at 7pm ET

• Follow me on Bluesky

We close today with inspiring words from Martin Luther King Jr:

Out of a mountain of despair, a stone of hope

Let’s keep making calls everyone. We have a dangerous extremist to defeat - Simon