Morning all. I spoke to a gathering of our proud and patriotic paid subscribers last night. A recording and transcript are above. We had a good crowd and a robust discussion. Get to it when you can.
I made three main points last night:
We are stronger and Trump is weaker
We have to keep working with great urgency as he is breaking things that will be very hard, if not impossible, to repair. Trump is far more an American saboteur than an American President.
I am incredibly grateful for how hard people in this community are working right now
We Are Stronger, He Is Weaker - As we discussed last night, Trump’s approval rating has fallen by 13-16 points depending on the poll since his Inaugeration. His standing with groups critical to his win - Hispanics, young people, independents - has cratered. The influential U of Michigan Consumer Sentiment Survey had it’s second lowest reading since the early 1950s last week.
Here is this week’s Economist/YouGov tracking poll. Trump’s job approval is 42%-52% (-10), down a staggering 16 points from his first week. Here are those three groups that were critical to his win:
18-29 33%-54% (-21)
Hisp 25%-71% (-46) !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Indies 32%-56% (-24)
Yesterday the Economist magazine put all their recent data into an article, “Donald Trump’s approval rating is dropping: he is beating his own record at rapidly annoying American voters." Look at these graphs - “Tanking,” “Buyer’s Remorse” -
The growing stench of weakness, failure, incompetence, betrayal and you-have-to-be-shitting-me tinpot dictatorship is encouraging more ambitious defiance across the country. Our big wins in Wisconsin and overperformances in Florida and other races across the country. Now Harvard, 12 House Rs breaking with Trump on Medicaid, 7 Senate Rs backing a bill to claw back tariff authority, raucous town halls and Bernie/AOC rallies, a 9-0 Supreme Court ruling, two courts moving towards contempt charges, the Dem AGs, Booker, Van Hollen, Newsom, Powell. Courage is becoming contagious. We are getting stronger.
Check out this inspiring story from the Miami Herald:
In a scorching letter, Cuban American healthcare billionaire Mike Fernández is urging Cuban American Republican leaders from Miami to stand up to President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown and speak up or “make room for others who can.”
“If you can’t find your voice at this moment, or tell the difference between one dictator and another, then perhaps it is time to make room for others who can and have a vision that you may lack,” Fernández told Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Miami U.S. Reps. Mario Díaz-Balart, María Elvira Salazar and Carlos Giménez in an open letter. He sent a version of the letter to each of them individually on Monday.
In the letter, Fernández, a deep-pocketed Coral Gables political donor, said Trump has adopted “a posture of cruelty” towards immigrants and accused the four politicians of having betrayed the communities they represent by staying silent.
“I know what it means to flee tyranny,” he said. “Like you, I carry that history in my bones and that pain in my heart. But like a growing number in our community, I have watched with dismay as the very values we once found sanctuary in are now being attacked by a previously unthinkable threat — the sitting President of the United States.
“In the face of all of this, the silence from our own leaders — the sons and daughters of exiles — has become deafening,” he added. “That silence is not neutrality, nor ignorance, it is complicity and cowardice… Your silence has caused fear and real harm to many in our community, in your districts.”
Here’s Fed Chair Jerome Powell yesterday, “higher inflation, slower growth.” This morning Trump called for his termination.
Here’s California Governor Gavin Newsom announcing a new state lawsuit challenging Trump’s destructive and unconstitutional tariffs (yes!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!):
Here’s Senator Chris Van Hollen reporting in late yesterday from El Salvador:
Okay my friends. Watch my talk. Check out this data and these videos, and now, let’s get to work. We have a country to save and a future to secure for our kids and grandkids……
Recommended Hopium Actions and Campaigns - Let’s focus on four current actions to channel our love of country and our frustrations into even more progress today:
1 - Demand Congress Take Back Their Tariff Authority From Trump - Call/contact your Senators and House Members today and demand they override and roll back these incredibly dangerous and destructive tariffs. Insist they sign on to the new resolution introduced by Senator Tim Kaine and others. Watch my new interview with Senator Kaine to learn more.
2 - Fight The Trump-Musk Attack On Our Government, Our Privacy And Our Constitutional Order - Encourage your Senators and Representatives to follow Senator Booker’s lead and let Facts be be submitted to a candid world in a joint Senate-House Letter to America; to hold their own hearings; to file criminal referrals for Musk and his malicious posse to DOJ/FBI and amicus briefs in the court cases regarding the usurpation of their Constitutional authorities or file suits of their own (House Dems began doing this several weeks ago). Encourage them to hold a daily morning press conference to more aggressively challenge Musk’s wild ransacking of the US government that is making America less prosperous, less healthy, less safe and far less respected in the world. Call to demand the return of Kilmar Abrego Garcia.
Watch my new discussion with Stuart Stevens and Rick Wilson of Lincoln Square to learn more about why Congress must craft A Letter To America now.
3 - Loudly Protest Trump’s Embrace of Russia and Abandonment of NATO and Europe - Let your electeds know you are outraged by traitorous Trump’s selling out of Zelenskyy, abandonment of Europe and embrace of Putin; and that we cannot accept this level of appeasement of someone who is a clear enemy of America and the West, and certainly not an ally. Demand that Trump not let his Saudi meeting w/Putin become our Munich; demand that he not become our Neville Chamberlain; demand that we rejoin our European and NATO allies in support of Zelenskyy and democracy here and everywhere. The country is not with Trump’s embrace of Putin and we must be very loud, very, very loud now. See my new essay on the need to support our allies and not surrender to Putin, and my new interview with Rep. Adam Smith, the Ranking Member of the House Armed Services Committee, one of the most important foreign policy voices in our party.
4 - Our Work In The States, The Spring Offensive - I am going to rework this section as so much has happened since we called on our community members to organize in the 17 most vulnerable Republican House seats. Rallies and protests have exploded across the country and the “Hands Off” events and Bernie/AOC tour have drawn extraordinary crowds. The DNC/House Dems/State Parties have kicked off People’s Town Halls in all 50 states. I have come to believe that we should be leaning on our state and local electeds to pursue these organized “condemnations” of the Trump regime and their betrayal of America. Let’s start talking now about what we are going to do on July 4th, a day with all of a sudden much more importance.
Here are the current list of People’s Town Halls folks can attend and support during the coming Easter recess:
Pennsylvania’s 8th Congressional District “Good Trouble Festival” on April 22nd, represented by Republican Rep. Rob Bresnahan
Colorado’s 8th Congressional District on April 24th, represented by Republican Rep. Gabe Evans
North Carolina’s 9th Congressional District on April 24th represented by Republican Rep. and NRCC Chair Richard Hudson
Missouri’s 2nd Congressional District on April 25th, represented by Republican Rep. Ann Wagner
Paid subscribers should self-report their actions today in our daily chat. So inspired by how hard so many of you are working. I want to make a special plea to all Hopium readers in states with Republican Senators - please make your calls, every day. Even 50 to 100 people calling every day in every red state can make a difference. We have hundreds of Hopium subscribers in every state in the country and it’s critical that we all do our part now.
For those wanting to do more traditional political/campaign work, we have the following Hopium-backed efforts we're rallying behind:
Help Abigail Spanberger Win Virginia - Virginia will be one of the big battlegrounds of the November, 2025 elections and we have a great candidate for Governor, Abigail Spanberger. Watch my interview with Abigail, donate, volunteer, and learn more here. Given how many federal employees live in Virginia, this race is also now on the front lines of the Trump/Musk assault on the federal government.
We’ve raised more than $80,000 so far towards our June 30th goal of $250,000 - thank you all. Let’s keep working it for Abigail!
Help Allison Riggs, Anderson Clayton And The NC Dems Stop The GOP’s From Stealing A Supreme Court Seat - A few weeks ago we began a campaign to raise $50,000 for Justice Allison Riggs, Anderson Clayton and the NC Dems. These funds will help the NC Dems get off to a great start in 2025 and help cover the costs of their fight to prevent the Republicans from stealing a Supreme Court seat we won together in 2024.
If you want to go deeper into the GOP’s rancid effort to steal a Supreme Court seat watch my new interviews with Justice Riggs and Anderson Clayton, the inspiring Chair of the North Carolina Democratic Party.
We’ve raised $40,000 so far towards our June 30th goal of $50,000 - thank you everyone!
Support The Hopium House 7 - We’ve begun our work to help flip the House next year by supporting and shoring up the 7 newly-elected battleground House Dems we helped elect last year. Catch our interviews with Derek Tran and Janelle Bynum and give to all 7 through a single donation on our new ActBlue page. Learn more about this important effort here.
We’ve already raised over $63,000 towards our $250,000 June 30th goal - thank you all!
Thank Senator Booker For Standing Up For America - Senator Booker is up for re-election next year and many of you asked if they could channel their support and appreciation for him through Hopium. So I’ve set up an ActBlue fundraising page for him with a goal of raising $100,000 by June 30th. We’ve already raised $21,000 - thank you all. Let’s be there for Senator Booker as he been there for us at this critical time.
Let’s end today with this remarkable passage from Thomas Jefferson that speaks to this terrible moment of tariffs, Gulags and tinpot dictators…..
Keep working hard all. We are making progress, true progress, and we need to keep fighting as hard as we can - Simon
Share this post