Morning all. The proud, plucky patriots of the Hopium community gathered last night for our weekly get together and I had one clear message for everyone:
We are having the fight with Trump we all wanted to have.
Now, we have to go win it. Together.
You can catch a video of my talk or read the transcript, above. Here are some notes from my talk last night and where I think things are now.
First, let’s talk about Trump. That he is a wrecking ball, in clear physical and cognitive decline, and a wanna be dictator - not a President - has become impossible to ignore. In just a few months he has re-ignited inflation, slowed the economy, exploded the deficit, torched our alliances and damaged America’s standing throughout world. He is wrecking our health care system, attacking our world leading scientific and medical research centers, laying siege to the farm economy, throwing innocent people into foreign gulags without due process, invading our cities, recklessly walking away from the global consensus on climate change, leading an extraordinary coverup of a prolific sex trafficker and pedophile, enriching himself and his courtiers, and is now using the government to lawlessly pursue and silence his domestic opposition.
America under Trump has become less prosperous, less safe, less healthy, and less free, a far weaker nation. His regime represents a profound and historic betrayal of America and everything that has made us great, and the most powerful nation in history. All of this has also made him extraordinarily unpopular as the American people wake up to the destruction he is causing, wake up to that he really is pursuing an agenda of “more for me, less for you” now.
Since his political decline began in earnest in early June, nothing Trump has done - bomb Iran, invade cities, pass his big ugly bill, levy illegal and outrageous tariffs, roll out the red carpet for Putin, fire leading members of his government - has worked to reverse his decline. He just keeps falling and growing more unacceptable and distant to voters.
In these last two weeks since their hysterical and dangerous response to the tragic killing of Charlie Kirk, Trump has seen the worst polling of his 2nd term. Here’s some of what we’ve seen in recent days. The country has rejected his latest unhinged, illiberal escalation:
39%-60% (-21) AP-NORC
38%-59% (-21) ARG
41%-58% (-17) Reuters/Ipsos
39%-56% (-17) Economist/YouGov
40%-56% (-16) Gallup
38%-54% (-16) Quinnipiac
43%-56% (-13) WaPo/Ipsos
42%-55% (-13) GE Morris/Verasign
Here is our weekly breakout of the Economist/YouGov poll. Across the board decline and erosion:
Trump is also underwater on every major issue right now, suggesting that he will struggle to win this big budget debate with us in the coming months as a majority of the country appears to be unavailable to him now:
In the new Reuters poll Trump’s job approval on “cost of living” hit 28% this week. 28%!!!!!!
Consumer sentiment is now at a 50 year low!
As I wrote yesterday I also think the pro-democracy movement needs to be making Trump’s clear physical and cognitive decline, his increasing madness, and fitness for office more central to our discourse. Look at how the British newspaper The Daily Mirror covered his disastrous UN speech this week (and yes baby man!!!!!!!!!!!!!)
Trump is deranged. And the latest manifestation of his derangement and decline is his response to our standing firm in the early stages of the end-of-year budget negotiations. First he pathetically cancelled a meeting he had agreed to with Leaders Schumer and Jeffries. Next, his regime, imperially, has threatened to fire hundreds of thousands of government workers and essentially destroy the government of the United States of America if the Democrats don’t give them 100% of what they want. It’s pure fucking madness. They only care about their power, not about us, not about the country. It is literally hostage taking:
For as say here at Hopium:
Trump is weak, not strong. He is losing, not winning. A failure, not a success. A betrayer of America, not a patriot. A villain, not a hero.
A big blubbery baby man, anything, anything but a strongman.
And it is that weakness; that political, physical, and cognitive decline; that extremism, zealotry, madness; that clear failure of his economic and foreign policy that is causing them to escalate - for they have become scared of the American people, of those people outside the walled castle, the “small folk.” And so we get troops on the streets, the lawless pursuit of their opposition, the threats to undermine the midterm elections, the desperate shake down of corporations to fill their campaign coffers. All of this is happening because Trump is weak and failing not because he is strong and successful.
Which brings us now to us, Democrats, the pro-democracy movement, proud American patriots. As I discussed last night we are now in the fight with Trump and his terrible regime that all of us have wanted. Leaders Schumer and Jeffries have kicked off the year end budget negotiations by telling Trump we just aren’t going to go along with their agenda that is doing so much harm to the country and has been so clearly rejected by the American people. This is a responsible and principled position, and one we can defend and rally around in the weeks ahead.
As a matter of strategy I think we have to come to understand that the 2026 general election has begun. We are now in a comprehensive fight with Trump and his rancid regime that will carry through to November of next year. As we go forward we should not limit our engagement to health care, as important as that is, and work to develop a far broader and more compelling indictment that includes his disastrous economic agenda/tariffs/costs, his betrayal of American democracy and embrace of authoritarianism, and his weakening of our national security (our four part agenda).
As I wrote on Tuesday recent polling suggests that voters want us focusing on the economy/rising costs and threats to democracy too. There has clearly been a change in the issue landscape in recent weeks for as Trump has become more menacing “threats to democracy” has risen dramatically as an issue of concern event with independents. We can make our fight with Trump more potent and durable if we expand it to include the issues of greatest concern to the voters available to us this fall and next year.
In my recent memo Fighting Trump Now - Recommendations For Congressional Democrats, I made two tactical recommendations to our newly emboldened Congressional leaders for how we can better organize ourselves to fight Trump now:
1 - The Senate-House communications operations must become far more ambitious, and operate 24/7/365. “Recess” can no longer be a thing, as Trump has had the stage to himself in DC this August and I think the lack of aggressive push back has encouraged the escalation we’ve seen. Staff will have be redeployed to beef up the Comms operations. Ranking Members MUST start acting like a Shadow Cabinet and take on daily communications - not just legislative - responsibilities. Gov. Newsom’s digital team should be leading training for all Congressional Comms and Digital folks. “Silence is complicity” should be the sign that sits on the desk of every Democratic leader this fall. We must be in his face, challenging him every day, on all fronts.
Simply, our Congressional leaders must increasingly understand that they not just legislators but communicators and leaders of a proud, patriotic American opposition to what is the greatest threat to our democracy our nation has ever seen. Fighting Trump is not what the “Democratic base” wants. It is what is required of us now, and particularly required of those who swore an oath to defend the Constitution, a Constitution under unprecedented and historic assault.
2- Talks must begin to create some kind of national Democratic leadership coordinating council. We must find a way for the Senate, House, Governors and other prominent Dems to coordinate and work together. Trump prevails by dividing people and organizations, keeping them isolated and apart, so they are more easily steamrolled. The antidote to that strategy is for us to try to find ways to get bigger, to work together not separately, as the 23 Dem AGs do every day. We have to start seeing ourselves as all on the same opposition team, and to build these disparate parts into a true opposition movement with some kind of loose coordinating council.
What we have now is insufficient and something much bigger, more powerful has to be built, and Democratic donors MUST get off the sidelines and help create the kind of capacity needed now to fight an escalating and increasingly ambitious Trump. Factional infighting is an indulgence we do not have right now. We must all hold hands and get stronger, more ambitious, more powerful for we will literally hang together or hang separately. Everyone must do their part now, and everyone has a role to play……..
Even though the midterm elections are more than a year away, I think Democrats need to turn on our party committees now and organize ourselves to fight what is akin to a Presidential year general election battle. The DNC and state parties can and should step up to help organize all this. As we discussed with both Nathan Heller and Leon Krauze recently, the pro-democracy movement must be strategically and aggressively contesting the national information space 24/7/365 and no longer rely solely on narrow geographic or demographic targets for our primary response to Trump. We must fight in the states but we must also have a team managing the big national conversation that is happening now.
Yes, we are talking about doing things that haven’t been done before in Democratic politics. But we are in an unprecedented place, a place no American has been since prior to 1776, and it would be reckless to rely on old tactics and strategies in what is an entirely new political moment. We must now evolve, innovate, take risks and fight in new and more effective ways. And to me that means both an immediate structural overhaul of our communications approach and the building of a new loose national coordinating council that puts the 7 million Harris donors, state parties, grassroots group and our traditional allies to work alongside the Congressional Democrats in this must win budget fight - for we are stronger together than apart, and the American people are expecting us to fight for them against this terrible regime.
If we are to win the fall and send a clear message to the American people and the world that the tide has turned and pro-democracy forces have begun to make meaningful gains, we will need to both win the fall elections and score significant wins in the budget battle. Friends, we are in the fight we’ve all wanted to have and now we simply must do everything we can to win it.
That’s what we talked about last night. Now….
Let’s Get To Work Everyone!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Winning The Fall - Support Our November, 2025 Candidates and Yes On 50
Mikie Sherrill NJ Gov (2025) - $250,000 goal, $81k raised - Donate | Learn More | Volunteer | Watch my new interview with Rep. Sherrill
Abigail Spanberger VA Gov (2025) - $250,000 goal, $196k raised - Donate | Learn More | Volunteer | Watch my interview with Abigail Spanberger
Yes on 50 (CA) - $50,000 goal - Donate | Learn more, volunteer | Sign Up For CA Dem Party Daily Phonebanks
Hopium members in CA/NJ/PA/VA - please vote on Day 1, or as early as you. When you vote early your names comes off the campaign GOTV rolls allowing them to move on to lower propensity voters, which increases D turnout and makes it more likely we win. Voting early = another way to help us win. Please vote early and encourage everyone you know to join you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Winning The Midterms - Support Our 2026 Candidates
Roy Cooper for NC Senate (2026) - $250,000 goal, $36,000 raised- Donate | Learn More | Volunteer | Watch my interview with Gov. Cooper
Jon Ossoff GA Senate (2026) - $250,000 goal, $73k raised - Donate | Learn More | Volunteer | Watch my inspiring new interview with Senator Ossoff
Hopium House 7 (2026) - $250,000 goal, $204k raised - Donate | Learn More, Volunteer | Watch My Interviews With Our Intrepid Incumbents
Expanding The Map - Support Our Audacious Expansion Fund (2026-2032)
Hopium’s Audacious Expansion Fund - $250,000 goal, $36,000 raised - Join our new campaign to invest in the Democratic Parties of Alaska, Florida, Iowa, Maine, and Texas - Donate To All Five State Parties | Watch my interviews with Alaska Chair Eric Croft, Florida Chair Nikki Fried, Iowa Chair Rita Hart and Texas Chair Kendall Scudder | Links to be able support each party individually will be up soon | We off to a great start here everyone - thank you!
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.
Defending America, Winning The Big Argument With Trump - We have two recommended 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 Senators and House Member work to keep the government open and
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, defend the 1st Amendment, and end the use of the military on our streets and the occupations of our cities (need to revise and update this one, make it bigger)
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
Stand with Ukraine and our European allies, 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 have passed or are advancing 81 (!!!!) resolution projects in 22 states + DC. Can we get to all 50 states by the fall election?
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. We have a country to save and a future to reclaim for our kids and grandkids - Simon
