Trump's Struggles Have Given Us A Big Opportunity - We Need To Seize It

It is time now for us to become the strong, confident, resolute and effective pro-democracy movement America needs

Morning all. In my post yesterday I argued that six months in while his government dangerously consolidates power Trump is in clear both physical and political decline. The Epstein scandal and Elon’s continued attacks on Trump have weakened him with his own supporters. His public performances last week were among the most unhinged since he came down the escalator 10 years ago. His grip is weakening. Here’s Politico this morning:

Last night, the president posted on Truth Social more than two dozen times.

He posted phony mugshots of former President Barack Obama and an AI-generated video of the former president being arrested in the Oval Office before donning an orange jumpsuit in prison.

He posted about the Washington Commanders, demanding they change their name back to the Redskins and suggesting that he could blow up the RFK Stadium deal if they don’t (useful reality check on that from The 51st’s Martin Austermuhle).

He posted a three-minute, captionless video with clips of a bikini-clad woman picking up and tossing a snake; a man somersaulting around a dowel down a stairway; a red Lamborghini careening beneath a truck, Clark Griswold style; a man jumping a fence and coming face to face with a speeding train; a woman break dancing; an optical illusion of a conference room; a billiards trick; a man hacking away at some rock formation; a dirtbiker stunting on a trail; a jet ski; a man ascending an obstacle course with a ladder; a man jump-roping; a man pulling a block from a still-standing massive Jenga tower; a man tossing trash into a dumpster from his balcony; a man doing a flip; a person carrying a heavy object on their shoulders; a man juggling a dropped package of paper towels; and a man doing a skateboard trick.

Yep. That’s The President of the United States of America. Having a very public Sunday night meltdown after a terrible, terrible week and really, really bad polling……

We need to keep the pressure on, stay on offense, my friends. For those making calls to their Senators and House members I think there are three things to focus on - end Trump’s tariffs and stop them from increasing on August 1st; put meaningful restrictions on ICE’s illiberal ambitions and plans; release the Epstein files.

I start this week encouraged by this graph from CNN’s new poll:

and by the polls showing both Sherrill and Spanberger with leads far bigger than our 2024 margins in New Jersey and Virginia.

It’s time for the internal family narrative of Dem weakness to end. We may not be where we want to be, but we are overperforming in all elections across the country; have substantial leads in NJ and VA; have a clear and deeply meaningful enthusiasm advantage; Trump is incredibly unpopular; every part of his agenda has been rejected by the American people; his 2024 coalition has unraveled; and things are likely to get worse for the Rs as their agenda kicks in. Remember Trump is in this weakened state despite the bully pulpit, his command of the media, the capitulation of legacy media and the power of the right wing noise machine. That has he grown this unpopular, this quickly, with their growing information superiority is a remarkable thing; and something that has to be considered a dramatic failure by the Trump White House, a sign that they are not as powerful and capable as they pretend to be each day.

Some argue that Trump doesn’t care about his poll numbers for we won’t have elections next year. As I’ve written here I think that is dangerous, obeying in advance thinking, thinking that if acted upon by our movement will guarantee failure next year. If they didn’t care about public opinion why are they moving to get more House seats out of Texas? Why does he lie about public polling all the time? Or why do they lie, daily, about no cuts to Medicare, no increase in the deficit, that inflation is not rising but falling? If they did not care about public opinion and elections, they would not lying all the time about everything or raising money for their campaigns, political party committees or SuperPACs or working to squeeze more seats out of Texas.

I just don’t think that their own internal understanding of Trump as STRONG, VIRILE, SUPERMAN allows them to see what we see. The swollen ankles, the clear physical and cognitive decline, the deep rejection by the public of all aspects of his agenda. They believed that we, foreign nations, the courts would bend the knee as they have. And that just hasn’t happened. When information comes into their bubble that challenges their internal, false construct it is dismissed as fake news. We, cutting Medicaid? No way brother!!!! We, exploding the deficit, you gotta be kidding me! We, breaking our core promise to you and raising prices on everything? Don’t you know that gas is now 3 cents a gallon, and eggs have come down to xxx, and bluster, blather and bullshit. Watch this incredible clip of Mike Johnson claiming on Friday that Dear Leader is at 90% approval now and his approval rating is “skyrocketing” -

Checking into the news this morning there is a lot to despair about. The MAGA project grinds on. The cowardice and complicity of Congressional Republicans remains breathtaking. The Roberts Court selling out of American democracy has become a world altering event. But 60 percent of the country is not happy about any of this. Their arrogance and fanaticism did not anticipate this many Americans escaping their info bubble and turning on them. I think they are still in denial about what is happening as they hold on to fake polls, fake economic data and swim in their own reinforcing propaganda each day. For when they get together they are WINNING, STRONG, AMERICAN HEROES! 90% approval rating! NO ONE HAS EVER SEEN ANYTHING LIKE IT! That may be true for 35-40% of the country. For the rest of us nope, we ain’t buying what these fuckers are selling. Which is why we have to focus on consolidating and building on these political and info gains we’ve made in recent months, gains that were not guaranteed or even in my mind a likely scenario, and just keep working as hard as we can.

As I think about us, and what we can and should be doing here at Hopium, I think we need to start organizing around the 2025 and 2026 electoral maps far more. We know where the battles will be fought, where the betrayers are we need to beat, where the candidates are we need to lift up and rally behind. We’ve begun that work here with our endorsements so far. We are rallying for Spanberger and Sherrill, Ossoff and our initial 7 newly elected House incumbents in battleground races. But I think we need to begin expanding our work now to more states and districts to try to make sure we seize the opportunity that is now in front of us. For I don’t think they are seeing clearly. They are drunk with their own power, drowning in their own lies, prisoners of their own propaganda. While they may be consolidating power they have lost the country; and that gives us an opportunity, a big opportunity. And we need to seize it, together.

The time when Democrats were weak and struggling must come to an end, my friends. We must stop beating each other up and tearing each other down. Our time together must be focused on defeating them, not fighting with one another. We can debate and discuss but the trashing of other members of our broad family has become an indulgence we simply do not have time for. And the data is clear - electorally we are now stronger than they are, and now we must, as my friend Tara McGowan says “step into our own power” and go rack up some big wins together. We must reject the trolls, the assholes, the Republicans, the foreign governments who are all over our media telling us we are weak and failing. For while that may have been true it is not true any more, and we must now choose to be:

strong, now weak; winners not losers; successful not failing; heroes, not villains.

As I wrote in my very first Hopium post:

I am calling it Hopium Chronicles because I want this to be a journey guided by hope and optimism, of belief in ourselves, in love of country and a clear understanding of the nature of the conflict we are in. I have become convinced that part of Greater MAGA’s strategy is to intentionally poison our discourse with negative sentiment every day. They want us to feel bad about America, our democracy, our leaders, our institutions, our success, each other, ourselves. We cannot let them do that any more. While they talk American down every day, we need to talk it up. While they spread lies, we respond with truth and data. Hopium is a rejection of the darkness they are trying to spread. It is a way of standing up for our great country and its remarkable people. It is the key to how we win.

A strong, confident, resolute and determined Democratic Party and pro-democracy movement is what the country deserves, and our kids and grandkids are demanding of us. We must stand and fight, for we are Americans, and fighting for freedom and democracy is what we do. It is who we are.

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 less than two months - September 19th!

• Mikie Sherrill NJ Gov (2025) - $200,000 goal, $38k raised - Donate | Learn More | Volunteer | Watch Our Interview

• Abigail Spanberger VA Gov (2025) - $250,000 goal, $154k raised - Donate | Learn More | Volunteer | Watch Our Interview

• Jon Ossoff GA Senate (2026) - $200,000 goal, $38k raised - Donate | Learn More | Volunteer

• Hopium House 7 (2026) - $250,000 goal, $167k raised - Donate | Learn More, Volunteer, Watch Our Interviews

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 43 resolutions moving in 18 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 interviews with DNC Chair Ken Martin and ASDC President Jane Kleeb,

The DNC, the DSCC, the DCCC, the DGA and the ASDC have announced a major new “Organizing Summer” project. Learn more about it here. Organizing to win these 29 Republican held House districts will be one of most important collective priorities for the next 16 months:

5 - Support Brave US Governnment Staff and Scientists - Staff at 3 of the most important US science agencies - NIH, EPA and NASA - have now courageously filed letters of discontent against their leadership. Learn more and sign your name to support these remarkable initiatives, and do you part to fight to main America’s global scientific leadership!

• NIH Bethesda Declaration

• EPA Letter Of Dissent

• NASA Voyager Declaration

For more watch my interviews with 1) Colette Delawalla, Executive Director of advocacy organization, Stand Up For Science 2) Dr. Michael Mann, a world leading climate scientist, and author of the forthcoming book, Science Under Siege. Also be sure to read Dr. Mann’s recent article co-written with Dr. Peter Hotez, “A Triple Threat to Humanity: Climate Change, Pandemics, Anti-Science.”

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