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Trump Is A Lawless Madman, Elon Is On A Crime Spree, And We Have To Keep Fighting

Illegally closing USAID will turn Trump, Musk and Rubio into mass murderers and America into a global pariah

Simon Rosenberg

Feb 3

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Morning from Washington all. Yes, shit got very bad over the weekend here. Elon and his brownshirts illegally closed an entire US government agency, USAID. They’ve gotten access to Treasury payment systems. Trump launched a global trade war that could extraordinary damage to our economy and our alliances very, very rapidly. Global markets are rattled. America is becoming a global pariah. And Vladimir Putin is having his very best day in many years.

Before we get into all the awful details, I want to focus this morning on doing.

First, we need to call our reps like we have never called before. Everyone. This morning. Do not wait. Three possible areas of engagement:

Oppose The Unacceptable 4 - Gabbard, Kennedy, Patel, Vought - unqualified extremists all

Block/Nullify The Tariffs - protect the American people from prices hikes on just about everything

Stop The Attack On The US Government - everything Trump and Musk are attempting to do right now is illegal. They cannot just turn off appropriated monies, shutter government programs, fire hundreds of thousands of staff. This effects every American in every jurisdiction. 67 people already died last week due to their savagery. Millions more may die in the next few weeks. Much more carnage will come if we don’t fight.

As I wrote yesterday it is time now to start calling beyond the Senate and House and call electeds in the states and localities. These tariffs are going to drive up prices for the constituents of every elected Dem in the country - they should oppose them and use formal legislative/executive/legal tools in their state to fight them. Shutting government spending and appropriated monies will impact everyone of the constituents of every elected Dem in the country and like with the tariffs they need to use formal legislative/executive/legal tools in their states to fight them. Every state and locality should be suing Elon Musk and his brownshirts directly. Flood the zone with lawsuits against Musk himself.

This is an all hands on deck/what can I do moment and we need to let our elected representatives know at all levels of government what we expect of them - which is to fight for us, as they promised.

Next, we are going to ratchet up our work supporting campaigns and political parties as we did in the last cycle. As of this morning we now have three projects you can get involved in:

Help Get Ken Martin Off To A Strong Start - In this time of extraordinary challenge we need a strong DNC. On Saturday night we set a goal of raising $100,000 by March 31st for our new Chair. Incredibly over 600 of you have donated almost $68,000 so far. Watch my interview with Ken about what he wants to do with the DNC, and chip in whatever you can to help Ken and the new exciting team at the DNC get off to a strong start.

Note that two other good friends of Hopium - David Hogg and Jane Kleeb - were elected Vice Chairs of the DNC this weekend (Jane was elected head of the ASDC which also makes her a DNC Vice Chair).

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 $17,000 so far towards our March 31st goal - thank you all. Let’s keep working it for Abigail!

Help Susan Crawford and Ben Wikler in Wisconsin - As a way of honoring our good friend Ben Wikler and supporting this critical Supreme Court race in Wisconsin, I am asking our community to donate to the Wisconsin Democratic Party today. The money raised here will make sure Ben has the resources he needs to keep his team in place so they can support this critical statewide race. I know many of you are already deeply involved here - thank you all. More on this critical election in the coming days. Our initial goal is to raise $50,000 by April 1st.

Now to the unfolding Trump/Musk crime spree and attack on our democracy:

Things are moving very fast now - remember they are moving fast and breaking things as a strategy - but let’s dive in:

Read my deep dive on the tariffs and Trump/Musk’s escalating attack on the global rules-based order and our democracy, and this Hopium post about how shuttering USAID may turn Trump/Musk/Rubio into mass murderers in the next few weeks.
Watch my interview with David Leopold about how “deporting criminals” is a ruse, and that Trump is actually working to remove millions of legal and undocumented immigrants with the goal or reducing the non-white population in the US regardless of the moral, societal and economic costs.

Here’s Senator Patty Murray this morning:

Democrats are, as always, committed to responsibly funding the government, but it is extremely difficult to reach an agreement on toplines — much less full-year spending bills — when the president is illegally blocking vast chunks of approved funding, when he is trying to unilaterally shutter critical agencies, and when an unelected billionaire is empowered to force his way into our government’s central, highly-sensitive payments system [at the Treasury Department]. Democrats and Republicans alike must be able to trust that when a deal gets signed into law, it will be followed.

One of Musk’s children shut down the USAID DC headquarters this morning.

Rep. Don Beyer is heading over there this morning. The ferocious opposition may be finally starting to come together:

Here are Canadians booing during the singing of our national anthem at a NBA game in Toronto this weekend:

This is going to be a two post day for sure. That’s all for now. More soon, and make your calls everyone!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Simon