Trump's Ridiculous Story About The Iranian Negotiations Crashes And Burns, And The Strait Of Hormuz Is Closed Once Again
Our country is on an unsustainable path, and must change course
Morning all. Yesterday, Donald Trump, once again, tried to sell the world a wildly implausible and false story about the peace negotiations with Iran, a story that made it appear that Iran had made major concessions to our STRONG and MIGHTY leader. The Strait was open we were told. The Iranians had agreed to give up their nuclear program our addled leader told the world. Essentially what Trump sold to us was yet another imaginary Iranian surrender, which as the Iranians have made clear over the last 24 hours, did not happen. They have not agreed to end their nuclear program, not agreed to re-open the Strait while Trump maintained his blockade. Here is an Iranian statement this morning:
Just as there is no longer a path for Putin to win in Ukraine, there is no path for victory for Trump in Iran. Both Putin and Trump have lost. But they cannot accept the humiliation that will come from admitting defeat and so the exhausting fighting, the gaslighting, the threats, continue.
I have offered a lot of commentary in recent days about the dark place America finds itself in now; how the Trump regime and Greater MAGA are unraveling, crumbling, and falling apart; and why we should be optimistic that the spectacular historic failure and Olympian awfulness and madness of Trumpism will weaken oligarchical and autocratic forces and bolster pro-democracy forces around the world, as we saw in Hungary this week. Get to it when you can:
What caused Trump to lie to the world about the negotiations? Impatience, lack of impulse control, desperation, a negotiating tactic, another act of self-enrichment? I don’t know. But we do know, as we discussed yesterday, that Trump is now facing repeated, open rebellion from Republicans in both the House and Senate. His hold on the Capital has weakened, significantly, and defiance, even on that things that really matter to the White House, is becoming routine. There has to be tremendous pressure on him coming from inside his own party, and from his Gulf Arab business partners, to fix this incredible mess he has made in the Middle East. But he can’t. For fixing it would require him to admit failure, and to leave Iran in a stronger position in the region. And so we are, with the addled, vainglorious idiot in the White House screaming victory, again, and praying that somehow by summoning these words it would all magically become true; and he would be the STRONG and MIGHTY God-Emperor again that he sees in the mirror when he wakes each morning rather the failed, pathetic, buffoon the whole world knows him to be.
The momentum of pro-democracy movement continues. We had remarkable wins last week in Wisconsin and Hungary, and more encouraging overperformances in Georgia and New Jersey too. We need to win in Virginia on Tuesday - this is vital, critical, essential. I am grateful to all of you who have voted early, and volunteered for the Vote Yes campaign. Head to the main campaign website to grab another shift or canvass this weekend. We need to keep winning, keep aggregating power, keep getting stronger……
Yes, Let’s Get To Work Everyone!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Winning The Midterms, Competing In Red States and Red Places, Expanding The Map
Hopium’s Winning The House Campaign (2026) - $575,300 raised, $1,000,000 goal (new ambitious, audacious even, q2 goal) - Donate to all twelve of our endorsed House challengers with one click | You can meet and get to know these House flipping candidates by watching our recently recorded Hopium interviews with each.
So far we’ve sat down with Jamie Ager (NC-11), Christina Bohannan (IA-01), Mayor Paige Cognetti (PA-08), Rebecca Cooke (WI-03), Sean McCann (MI-04), Jo Mendoza (AZ-06), Janelle Stelson (PA-10), Shannon Taylor (VA-01), and should rounding out the rest in the coming weeks. If you are looking for inspiration this weekend watch a few of these interviews - I promise they great candidates will get you excited about our opportunities this November!
James Talarico For Texas - $58,800 raised, $250,000 - Donate | Volunteer and Learn More | Enjoy my inspiring interview with Rep. Talarico as he fights to turn Texas blue
Mary Peltola For Alaska Senate - $84,500 raised, $250,000 goal - Donate | Volunteer and Learn More | Enjoy my uplifting conversation with Mary Peltola as she fights to turn Alaska blue
Winning Ohio - $123,900 raised, $250,000 goal - Our new campaign splits contributions evenly among Sherrod Brown, the Acton/Pepper ticket, and the Ohio Democratic Party. Donate today and help us turn this critical 2026 battleground blue, and watch my new discussion with our good friend David Pepper, now our candidate for Lt. Gov in Ohio. This total includes $21,00 sent by a Hopium community member directly to each of our three Buckeye State partners!
Roy Cooper for NC Senate (2026) - $105,700 raised, $250,000 goal - Donate | Learn More | Volunteer | Enjoy my new discussion with Gov. Cooper as he fights to turn North Carolina blue
Jon Ossoff GA Senate (2026) - $167,300 raised, $250,000 goal - Donate | Learn More | Volunteer | Enjoy my inspiring conversation with Senator Ossoff
Hopium’s Audacious Expansion Fund - $524,200 raised, $750,000 goal (new stretch goal) - 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. Catch interviews with the five intrepid state chairs leading their troops into battle this year - will get you fired up!
Many thanks to two generous Hopium community members who have audaciously donated $20,000 to each of our five state parties over the past two years.
Advocate For The Hopium Agenda/Pass Resolutions Of Condemnation In Your Community
There are a few more ways to go to work in the coming days - call your leaders and advocate for elements of our working, ever evolving Hopium Agenda; bring resolutions that condemn our Mad King and lets facts be spoken to a candid world to your state or local government.
Here’s our working Hopium Post-Iran Disaster Agenda:
Work to end this new gulf war and Trump’s Imperial global ambitions
Support Ukraine and Europe, not Russia
Roll back the new, illegal tariffs
Rescind the Trump tax cuts, claw back the extra ICE funding, fund the IRS so it can collect the taxes the rich are hiding from us
Launch a major anti-corruption, renewing democracy campaign, one that ensures accountability for the crimes and treason committed, limits the political power of our emerging oligarchy, and strengthens democracy here and everywhere
Make the US a clean energy superpower, fight for true energy independence, and lower utility and energy prices for the American people
Rein in ICE, end Mass Deportation
End Trump’s destructive war on science, research, our health scare system and our public Health
Make clear to American farmers that we want to end the failed war, repeal the terrible tariffs, find legal pathways for farm workers, and make health care and energy more affordable
This week our calls should clearly focus on reining in the illegal war in the Middle East and ICE here at home, and rescinding the tariffs that are doing so much damage to our economy.
And please use the paid subscriber chat to self-report the good trouble you make each day.
Keep working hard all. We have a country to save and an election to win, together - Simon
Saw Anderson Clayton yesterday at a fundraiser in Charlotte for the NC statewide judicial candidates. Erie Holder spoke. Excited that if we do it right, we can take back the NC Supreme Court in 2028!
UKRAINE – Good news!
. "Ukraine is slowing Russia and clawing back ground in key areas"
[George] Barros attributed Ukraine's gains to its "maturing in their operational planning." He said Ukraine was now "demonstrating a more sophisticated and a deeper capability for operational planning and for preparing the battlefield to set the condition for exploits and then executing those exploits."
Ukraine notably made its Delta system – an online battlespace management system that lets Ukraine view and share real-time battlefield data and make decisions – mandatory for all combat units.
That has helped a "maturation of command" that allows Ukraine to think beyond defeating the Russian forces immediately in front of it and also think "about the deeper depths of the battlefield and how do we degrade that," Barros said.
"So really, this maturation of the command is working." He said the Delta system is having effects. "These things take time, but it's happening. And these reforms are what are slowly but surely enabling some of these Ukrainian successes that we're seeing reported out on the day-to-day now."
Barros said that Ukraine has also been intensifying its intermediate-range strikes to hit Russia's positions and logistics that support its front-line forces. Doing that from late last year has been "degrading the Russian forces in the south," he said.
He said the progress Ukraine made across February and March had been months in the making, with planning starting in late 2025.
https://www.businessinsider.com/ukraine-is-slowing-russia-down-and-making-gains-warfare-experts-2026-4