We Must Lean In Much Harder Against Trump's Terrible Tariffs, A New Lively Conversation With Michael Steele (Former RNC Chair, Current MSNBC Host)These tariffs are modern day "taxation without representation" and we need to be saying so far more loudly
Happy Friday everyone. Got a few things for you today: New CNBC Poll Shows Dems Up 5 In The Generic Ballot - In a poll that otherwise showed Trump in better shape than most recent independent polls, a new CNBC poll has data that helps explain the urgency (desperation?) behind the GOP’s escalating redistricting effort - they are losing altitude with voters:
We know from data that a central driver of the Trump/GOP decline has been the terrible tariffs and the higher prices they are bringing. Today G. Elliot Morris has a new deep dive on the tariffs and how they are playing the battleground states. Here are his estimates (spoiler alert - badly):
Yesterday, Trump dramatically escalated his tariffs on most goods imported into the United States. As we’ve said here these tariffs are both economic and geopolitical madness, but they are also giving the pro-democracy movement an extraordinary opportunity to tell the story of his betrayal of working Americans (higher prices, damage to small businesses, shifting the tax burden from the wealthy to everyday people) and of his unprecedented abandonment of the Constitutional order (these enormous new taxes are illegal, unconstitutional, “taxation without representation,” an historic abuse of power). I will be honest that I am bit surprised that my inbox and social media feeds are not overflowing with comments and videos from those on our side condemning Trump for his reckless and destructive escalation of his trade wars yesterday, trade wars that we know have been central to driving his approval rating down and loosening his hold on the public. While I am pleased with the new fight we are seeing from our side in the redistricting battle, the story we are telling about Trump and his rancid agenda of sabotage, plunder and betrayal must have these terrible tariffs at its core. Here’s a new graph from Paul Krugman putting these new tariffs levied yesterday in historical perspective:
Note that for almost 90 years it has been the consensus among economists and political leaders in the US that these Smoot-Hawley tariffs contributed significantly to the Great Depression, and the trade wars of the 1930s led to the shooting war of WWII; and thus we have spent most of the last century working to reduce or even eliminate tariffs. The 2017 Intelligence Community report on Russia’s backing of Trump in the 2016 election begins with this sentence:
That Trump is now running to meet with Putin early next week within days of doing more direct damage to the “US-led liberal democratic order” through these historic and destructive tariffs than Putin had ever done himself should also be motivating us to action. It is as if Trump is now reporting in to Putin, like a good dog, letting him know that he got one big part of their agenda through - the undermining of the US-led liberal democratic order - and now Trump needs him to play ball on Ukraine or whatever the fuck it is they are going to talk about.
For we must remember that as Trump has thrown huge tariffs at all of our closest allies
he’s done everything he can to keep showering Putin with gifts, including most recently making the Russian sanctions bill in the Senate, one that had 85 cosponsors (!!!!!!), disappear.
Jonathan Lemire has an interesting article in the Atlantic today called Things Aren’t Going Donald Trump’s Way (gift link) that has this subhead:
Lemire writes:
It’s why we have to keep working as hard as we can everyone, and work together to keep the momentum from these last few weeks going. Trump is weakening, and the central driver of that weakening is his terrible tariffs and the economic and geopolitical harm they are bringing. We need to be leaning in much harder about talking about these harms, and continue to take it to him even in these sleepy summer days in August. These tariffs are not only the most outrageous abuse of power by a President in our history, it is hard to imagine a greater betrayal of the American people themselves as these tariffs will raise costs on goods not lower them; continue to disrupt small businesses who cannot absorb the price increases or the supply chain disruption; weaken the American-led global system that has kept us prosperous and free; and will accelerate Trump’s goal of shifting the tax burden from him and his friends to all of us. Winning In Red States And Red Places, My New Conversation With Michael Steele - Yesterday I sat down with Michael Steele, former RNC Chair, current MSNBC host, and someone I’ve gotten to know well in recent years. A recording and transcript of our lively and spirited discussion is above. One of the more remarkable parts of this terrible Trump era is having people like Chairman Steele, Stuart Stevens, Joe Scarborough, Nicolle Wallace, Bill Kirstol, Rick Wilson now on our side, working along side us. It’s why I love these conversations with these “NeverTrumpers” for I think these former Republican leaders have important insights for us, things we must continue to learn as we work together to get to the other side of MAGA. Our discussion is rich with insights on a wide range of topics. We touch on the centrality of the tragic Southern Strategy to the rise of the modern right; the need for Democrats to focus on expansion now and focus on learning how to win in red states and red places to take back power; his own journey away from the Republican Party and MAGA; and we also get to hear the Chairman’s advice for Democrats now. I end the discussion by thanking the Chairman for staying in the game after the rise of MAGA, of continuing the fight. I thank him for his courage, his leadership, his patriotism, and even made him a honorable Hopium community member by bestowing the label of “proud, plucky patriot” on him, a label he eagerly embraced. Get to this conversation when you can and you can watch the Chairman on MSNBC Monday through Friday at 7pm ET. He is joined each night by two very sharp co-hosts - Alicia Menendez and Symone Sanders Townsend - who know politics well. It’s a show of savvy insiders and it is a great new addition to the MSNBC daily line up. Remember you can find all of my interviews/podcasts on the Hopium site under Podcast and on YouTube, Apple Podcasts and Spotify too. Hopium is also now posting on Instagram, TikTok and Twitter. You can always find men on Bluesky too where I post frequently throughout the day.
now…… Let’s Get To Work For Our Great Country, People!!!!!!!!!Support Hopium’s Priority Candidates And Party Committees - A reminder that Election Day, 2025 is a little less than three months away and early voting starts in Virginia in less than six weeks - September 19th! As background learn about 1) our big recommendations to the family coming out of the 2024 elections 2) the many important wins we had together last cycle 3) my latest thinking on where we are and the path forward for the Hopium community. Donate, volunteer, learn more about our candidates and opportunities here. I consider all these options must dos for anyone serious about winning this year and next year...
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. We can do this people!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Our Recommended Actions - We are prioritizing three actions today. You can get our full list of recommended actions here. Let’s get to it: 1 - Call your Senators and Rep To Demand They Rescind Trump’s Terrible Tariffs - Congress simply must take back its tariff authority that Trump has illegally and unconstitutional seized and dangerously abused. It is time now for to rescind these terrible and destructive madman tariffs. 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. Remarkably, members of this community are now advancing 60 (!!!!) resolutions projects in 19 states. Can we get to all 50 states by the fall election? Our newly updated Resolutions page includes a new chat for folks to report in on their progress or seek counsel from those interested in launching a resolutions project in their community. This is one way to fight back against Trump’s unprecedented abandonment of our Constitutional order. 3 - Grow Hopium And This Wonderful Community Of Proud, Plucky, Patriots - We’ve set a goal of trying to grow the Hopium community from the 152,000 we are now to 175,000 by Election Day, 2025. Do what you can to encourage your friends, family and colleagues to become a summer subscriber to Hopium, free or paid. If each current paid subscriber brings in just one new subscriber this summer and fall we will hit our goal. To encourage the growth of our community annual paid subscriptions are 10% off through Labor Day. Use that link to buy gift or group subscriptions, and join our new referral rewards program too. A further note - if you want to up your support of Hopium a powerful way to do it is to buy group or gift subscriptions for others. 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. Keep it up!!! Keep working hard all. Proud to be in this fight with all of you, and a fight it truly is - Simon You're currently a free subscriber to Hopium Chronicles By Simon Rosenberg. For the full experience, upgrade your subscription.
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Friday, August 8, 2025
We Must Lean In Much Harder Against Trump's Terrible Tariffs, A New Lively Conversation With Michael Steele (Forme…
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