Trump's Three Vietnams And The Wisdom Of The Founders
The reason we have lines at airports is because of ICE. If ICE agrees to follow the law the lines disapear. ICE is the *cause* of all those lines - not a solution.
Morning all. Yesterday I wrote about the three Vietnams/quagmires Trump has idiotically, vaingloriously, stumbled into:
The War in the Middle East
Tariffs, higher prices, slower economy, and now exploding gas prices
Roiding Up ICE/Mass Deportations
As a newly crowned Emperor (he crowned himself via that January NYT interview, of course), we have been perhaps slow to realize that he can do wrong. That whatever he is does is RIGHT, and JUST, and WISE, and STRONG. And he can no only win, for when he decides something it is the responsibility of the people and countries of the world to YIELD and SUBMIT, as those people in Venezuela did in January. For when he wishes something it must become and be.
And here we are. Another day, another incredibly dangerous, ridiculous Mad Kingy shitshow……
This morning Trump announced that due to progress in talks with Iran, ones that the Iranian government denied are taking place, he has backed off his threat to attack Iranian civilian infrastructure - for five days at least. We will get the back story on this in the coming days but it’s likely that after Iran released a list of Gulf and Israeli targets they would hit, Trump’s allies in the region, along with whatever level-headed people can break through to him, warned him about what would happen to oil and commodity prices, stock markets, gas prices here in the US if he escalated, and that he would also be committing clear and unequivocal war crimes.
As I am writing we are getting clips from a presser Trump just did. War ending in a few days, strait of Hormuz opening soon, bombing them forever, Iranians making concessions in talks that are not actually happening - all just extraordinary incoherence and make believe. As he so often does when things are not going as he imagined Trump has now begun inventing a false world where he is winning, and strong, and mighty, and wise, and not losing, and pathetic, and weak, and idiotic. But we and the whole world are here now, subject to his imaginings and whims, and the ill-conceived war grinds on. After falling this morning on what appeared to be promising news Brent Crude is rising again and the Dow has begun to drop - for nothing has changed on the ground, other than Trump looks more ridiculous, scared, and weaker. For the only way out of this war now is if Trump just leaves and takes the loss - something that we know he cannot do. Vietnam #1.
Vietnam #2 is his ICE terror force and mass deportations. He wants these masked men roaming our cities, terrorizing all of us. It’s clear it makes him fell powerful and strong. Like his war ICE has grown wildly unpopular, and the White House and Congressional Republicans have spent the last few weeks screaming COURSE CORRECTION/NEW DAY/KINDLER and GENTLER ICE. Just as the Iranians have outplayed Trump, Schumer and Jeffries outplayed Trump on DHS/ICE funding. We successfully isolated DHS/ICE funding from the rest of appropriations; got the White House to enter into legit negotiations to rein in ICE, and got some early, meaningful concessions; Noem was sacked and Bovino retired; Dems have kept forcing the Rs to vote down dedicated TSA funding as airport lines grow across the country; and yesterday Thune went to Trump with a bi-partisan deal - fund the rest of DHS, put TSA back to work, and Rs will try to pass the ICE portion of DHS funding through a party-line reconciliation vote, with no Democratic votes. It was a way out. But instead Trump, as he does, when threatened and feels like he is losing, escalated.
Here’s Punchbowl News this morning:
Thune told Trump that Senate Republicans would support funding all of DHS except ICE, the agency at the center of the bitter partisan dispute over Trump’s immigration crackdown, according to senators and aides.
ICE funding could be handled later in a party-line reconciliation bill. Democrats would accept the offer, the South Dakota Republican informed the president.
Democrats wouldn’t get some of their chief demands — banning masks for federal agents or requiring judicial warrants — if reconciliation were used. Plus, TSA agents would get their paychecks and the security-line madness at airports would end.
But Trump said no, according to multiple sources. The president wants Republicans to stay in D.C. and keep fighting with Democrats over DHS funding and the SAVE America Act, the GOP’s voter ID and proof-of-citizenship bill.
Not only that, Trump warned that he’d publicly slam Senate Republicans if they left town for the upcoming recess. Trump also said he’d invite all the GOP senators and their families for Easter dinner at the White House. Some Republicans took that as a threat, not a reward.
In a Sunday night Truth Social post, Trump made clear his position: “I don’t think we should make any deal with the Crazy, Country Destroying, Radical Left Democrats unless, and until, they Vote with Republicans to pass ‘THE SAVE AMERICA ACT.’”
Trump added: “Kill the Filibuster, and stay in D.C. for Easter, if necessary. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!”
The Mad King did not take the deal because, of course, he believes he is WINNING. FOR HE IS ALWAYS WINNING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! More from Punchbowl:
The real key here is that Trump believes he and Republicans are winning the DHS battle, while a lot of GOP lawmakers aren’t sure that’s the case.
So not only does our Very Mad King not take the deal, he blows up the GOP’s runaway-as-fast-as-we-can-from-ICE “course correction” by sending ICE agents into our airports today, and demanding that SAVE be passed as part of any deal to re-open DHS and end the airport lines.
Here are images that are going to dominate the news and social media today:
Watch this short “paper clip” video from that terrible presser Trump just finished. Just watch, please.
Holy unbelievable shitshow Batman!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Finally, Vietnam #3. The economy is headed into a tailspin because of his policies, policies he cannot admit were wrong and so he cannot course correct. We’ve discussed this a great here. Pre-war all the data was tracking in the wrong direction - GDP growth slowed, jobs were being lost not grown, inflation was rising not falling. It’s clear from the data that our economy was weakening and prices were rising due to his economic agenda, his mass deportations, and more. But like with so many things with Trump we don’t really know if he understands how much harm he was doing to the country. At the State of the Union he talked about the big economic boom under way, as he does most days. He says prices were falling when they are rising. So we don’t know that when he made the decision to attack Iran that he understood 1) how bad the US economy was at the moment, and making it far more vulnerable to shocks 2) that the war would likely bring debilitating economic shocks, including exploding gas prices. And so he launched a war that is doing extraordinary harm to an American economy that was already headed towards recession and the dreaded “stagflation.”
Trump has really fucked up here. His tariffs were a huge, catastrophic mistake. When struck down by the Supreme Court, he doubled down and reinstated ruinous, global tariffs. The ICE terror force and mass deportations were a huge, catastrophic mistake. While Rs and White House staff had forced him to begin to course correct today he once again doubled down. The war was a huge, catastrophic mistake. And in the last few days he has doubled down, threatening huge escalation, sending more marine, ships, and troops to the region. And then whatever it is that happened today - walk back, TACO, cowardly retreat, facesaving bullshit - we stumble forward with an enormous armada in the Middle East, war raging, a $200 billion supplemental and preperations for the attempted seizure of another country, Cuba, well underway.
For the good of the country we need Trump to walk away from his three Vietnams, to cut his losses, and end the war, end the tariffs, and end mass deportations/ICE as terror force. Thune tried this weekend to get Trump to agree to a small piece of cutting his losses - reopen DHS, work to fund ICE. Trump, of course, refused, and then did he what he does when threatened - he escalated. He can no longer do “deals.” He can only accept 100% surrender.
That is the pattern. And that is where we are. Trump has stumbled into three “escalation traps,” three Vietnams, and our leaders - and those across the world - are going to spend the next several years working to extricate us, and them, from all of them.
The central project of our Founders was to build a country where none of this could be possible. They understood the wildly destructive psychology of Mad Kings and escalation traps. As we work to remove the Trump enablers from power, and undo the harms of this terrible Trump era, we also need a grand project to talk to the American people about the vision of the Founders and why democracy must prevail here and everywhere. This terrible Trump era must become a lesson, a spark that lights a fire of democratic renewal here in the US and around the world.
Perhaps we will call this project No Kings.
More From Hopium
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Winning The Midterms, Competing In Red States and Red Places, Expanding The Map
Hopium’s Winning The House Campaign (2026) - $343,400 raised, $400,000 goal (new stretch goal) - Donate to all twelve of our endorsed House challengers with one click | Enjoy our new conversations with Christina Bohannan (IA-01), Mayor Paige Cognetti (PA-08), Jo Mendoza (AZ-06), and Janelle Stelson (PA-10) and learn more about the eight candidates we just added to our campaign here.
We will be meeting the rest of our newly expanded slate of intrepid House candidates in the coming weeks. It’s a great crew! This fundraising total includes funds already raised with our friends at FridayAction for a joint event we’re doing later this month.
James Talarico For Texas - $33,600 raised, $100,000 March 31st goal - Donate | Volunteer and Learn More | Watch my recent interview with Rep. Talarico
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Many thanks to two generous Hopium community members who have audaciously donated $10,000 to each of our five state parties.
Advocate For The Hopium Agenda/Pass Resolutions Of Condemnation In Your Community/Sign Up For No Kings on March 28th
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; sign up for a No Kings event and watch my new interview with Indivisible’s Ezra Levin, a driving force behind No Kings.
Here’s our working Hopium Post-Iran Disaster Agenda:
Work To End This New Gulf War, And Trump’s Global Imperial Ambitions
Make Clear We Support Ukraine and Europe, Not Russia
Roll Back The New, Illegal Tariffs
Rescind The Trump Tax Cuts, Claw Back The Extra ICE Funding
Make The US A Clean Energy Superpower, Fight For True Energy Independence, And Lower Energy Prices For The American People
Keep Fighting To Rein In ICE, End Mass Deportation
End the War on Science, Health and Public Health
This week our calls should clearly focus on reining in the illegal war in the Middle East and ICE here at home, rescind the tariffs, and on blocking the “SAVE Act.”
Keep working hard all. We have a country to save and an election to win, together! - Simon
Simon, thank you for the cogent summary of where we are.
Republicans might want to watch the Red Wedding scene from Game of Thrones before heading to the White House for Easter lunch.
I may be wrong, but having ICE in the airports instead of outside schools and court houses might be a good thing. They'll piss off lots of red Americans who haven't really been confronted with ICE before now. Homan says they won't be helping TSA, just "guarding," so things will likely get slowed down even more. And now, Trump's claimed sole credit for the idea, just like the man who "discovered" paper clips. You know, hiding out in the back of the office supply cupboard.
I called Congressman Raskin and Senators Alsobrooks and Van Hollen to say NO more funding for ICE or this war. I also said that I am very concerned that the president is not in touch with reality. That he did a number of things just this weekend that no sane person would ever say or do. And that I want them to begin to regularly bring this point up whenever they speak. Just like Lyndon Johnson, "I want to hear the SOB deny it." I sent the Texas Democratic party some love, am writing postcards to Virginia voters about redistricting, and am signed up for this weekend's local No Kings demonstration. I bought a bunch of small flags to hand out there.
On a positive note from the Washington Post (gift link)
https://wapo.st/4szSjlq
I’ll have to admit I have a crush on Jon Ossoff, every time I see him (including Simon’s interview a while back) I just say to myself “what a mensch” “what a mensch”….like a mantra that calms me down. And I’ll add in the other half of the dynamic Georgia duo, Rev. Warnock. They both speak and act with such moral clarity and political savvy. Congratulations to Georgia for electing such shining lights in these dark times.