Worst First 100 Days In US History, Trump LOVES His Salvadoran Gulag, DOGE Is An Outrageous Fraud And Failure, Cooper Up In NC
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Morning all. I was on CNN this morning to talk about the worst first 100 days of an American leader in our history. Here’s the clip:
Let’s start making our collective case for the worst first 100 days in American history. Here’s my initial cut:
Through his reckless policies and extremism Trump is making America weaker, less prosperous, less safe and less free. There has never been a more un-American leader in our history.
Trump has done enormous harm to the US economy and the American people. Prices are rising, the economy is slowing, 401ks have taken a huge hit, Social Security/Medicare/Medicaid are under assault, countries around the world are angry with our reckless and capricious tariffs, and the US is losing our “safe haven” status that has keep interest rates low, capital flowing into the US and the dollar the global reserve currency for generations. In just a few months Trump took the strongest economy in the developed world and trashed it. It’s an historic failure.
Through this reckless approach to foreign affairs Trump is making Russia and China great again and leaving America alone, reviled and far weaker in the world. He is torching our alliances, undermining the global economy, leaving millions of people to die in the developing world, jailing and disappearing legal migrants and visitors to the US and destroying our global reputation. He is becoming a global villain, perhaps the first true global villain in world history.
Trump has launched an unprecedented attack on the US Constitutional order, acting every day as if the rule of law and our Constitution do not exist. People are disappearing from our streets. Innocent people thrown into foreign gulags. Entire government agencies lawlessly vaporized. He’s levied extraordinary destructive tariffs with no Constitutional or legal authority to do so. This morning we wake to the news that he and his Administration are ignoring a direct order from the Supreme Court, something he and and the rancid leader of El Salvador will celebrate from the White House later this morning. Trump has in these first 100 days betrayed the country as no other leader in our history.
Trump’s poll numbers are crashing, and on Friday we saw the 2nd lowest consumer confidence number in the last 70 years, lower than COVID and the Great Recession. So he is not just a governing failure, he is a political failure too as our strong electoral performances this year also confirm.
That’s my initial take. Let’s keep working on it, together, and enjoy the CNN clip!
Related reading and discussions from Hopium:
Clear Majorities Want Congress To Take Back Its Tariff Authority
Trump’s Madness and Recklessness Have Left Him Weaker and Diminished
Rep. Don Beyer on DOGE’s Lawless Attack On The US Government
AZ AG Kris Mayes On Fighting Trump’s Assault On The Constitutional Order
In a related story, a new credible poll from North Carolina has former Governor Roy Cooper ahead of Senator Thom Tillis:
Bukele’s White House Visit - Today is a dark day in American history, as our President and the ridiculous Salvadoran Leader Nayib Bukele will use America’s White House to celebrate their disgusting, lawless partnership to violate the human rights of residents of both countries. As this is a developing story this morning I will not dwell on it but let’s see how our leader, occupying a position once known as the “leader of the free world,” promoted the visit last night:
In related news we’ve now learned that the Tufts graduate student taken off the street had been cleared of any wrongdoing by the State Department before she was taken. Here’s a gift link to the Washington Post story…….
Just jawdropping levels of deeply, deeply destructive extremism and fanaticism from the worst American leader in our history…..
Musk and DOGE Are Fraudsters, Failures and An Epic Bullshit Factory - A new NYT article about DOGE is stunning. Here it is, with a gift link. Look at the headline
Here is how it opens:
Last week, Elon Musk indicated for the first time that his Department of Government Efficiency was falling short of its goal.
He previously said his powerful budget-cutting team could reduce the next fiscal year’s federal budget by $1 trillion, and do it by Sept. 30, the end of the current fiscal year. Instead, in a cabinet meeting on Thursday, Mr. Musk said that he anticipated the group would save about $150 billion, 85 percent less than its objective.
Even that figure may be too high, according to a New York Times analysis of DOGE’s claims.
That’s because, when Mr. Musk’s group tallies up its savings so far, it inflates its progress by including billion-dollar errors, by counting spending that will not happen in the next fiscal year — and by making guesses about spending that might not happen at all.
One of the group’s largest claims, in fact, involves canceling a contract that did not exist. Although the government says it had merely asked for proposals in that case, and had not settled on a vendor or a price, Mr. Musk’s group ignored that uncertainty and assigned itself a large and very specific amount of credit for canceling it.
It said it had saved exactly $318,310,328.30.
Mr. Musk’s group has now triggered mass firings across the government, and sharp cutbacks in humanitarian aid around the world. Mr. Musk has justified those disruptions with two promises: that the group would be transparent, and that it would achieve budget cuts that others called impossible.
Now, watching the group pare back its aims and puff up its progress, some of its allies have grown doubtful about both.
“They’re just spinning their wheels, citing in many cases overstated or fake savings,” said Romina Boccia, the director of budget and entitlement policy at the libertarian Cato Institute. “What’s most frustrating is that we agree with their goals. But we’re watching them flail at achieving them.”
OK, enough of the ugliness, failure and betrayal. Let’s get to work:
Our Top Recommended Hopium Actions and Campaigns - We’ve launched some new actions and campaigns, and are for now retiring a few old ones…here we go!
1 - Demand Congress Take Back Their Tariff Authority From Trump - Call/contact your Senators and House Member today and demand they override and roll back these incredibly dangerous and destructive tariffs. Insist they sign on to the new Kaine resolution! Watch my new interview with Senator Tim 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.
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 recent 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 this weekend drew 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.
Next, for those wanting to do more traditional political/campaign work we have four 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 $78,000 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 $39,000 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 $59,000 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 more $20,000 - thank you all. Let’s be there for Senator Booker as he been there for us at this critical time.
Keep working hard all. Proud to be in this fight with all of you. We have a lot of work to do - Simon
Let me share some thoughts about the CNN hit today. 1) Many of you don't watch non left of center media so yes this may be hard to watch or you may not be used to hearing their arguments. The debate in these kinds of settings are very different then when we are together, and this was also in the 7am morning block too. 2) As I argued this weekend we cannot allow them to dictate the terms of the debate. I don't respond or take down their arguments or I would be spending my entire time on air responding to them, staying in their frame and would never get to make my points. When I do these hits I have things that I want to get across and spend my time doing that. I talk past them not to them. 3) While he was "hotter" and more aggressive, and she gave him more time (not something I have control over), my narrative of "worst 100 days ever" was by and far away the most lasting and hard hitting part of the convo. 4) it is my firm belief that in these kind of neutral or right of center settings anger and hot emotion is not effective. An old Simon rule - the other team is going to score in politics, we just need to score more. I do not fight with the other guests or even usually engage them. That is what they want - for you to fight with them rather than make your points. 5) Finally, in these TV hits you need to stay tight and concise. Things always get left out. Nature of the game. 6) For those who are not aware I was a regular guest on Fox News for almost 20 years and did thousands and thousands of appearances, and also began my career as a producer/writer for ABC News. I have a lot of experience in this world, and you don't need to get an A+ in every appearance. You just have to have the goal of making progress, moving the ball down the playing field in what was obviously a very challenging environment where he got and took a very big bite at the apple and framed the entire conversation.
Thanks for the feedback and get fighting all - S
We should all be focusing on Trump and the administration defying the Supreme Court with respect to Abrego Garcia. If we let this pass, we are much more likely to fail.