Morning all. I want to talk about three big, related stories today:
1) Our growing realization that our politics here in America, and increasingly the politics of the entire world, are now being held hostage to Trump’s maniacal, impulsive, addled quest to restore his STRENGTH, POWER, and MANLINESS that have been lost due to the failure of his domestic agenda and soaring unpopularity.
We got further confirmation of Trump’s failing domestic agenda as only 50,000 jobs were created in December. Job growth has essentially stalled since Trump’s tariffs were announced in early May, and consumer sentiment (via UMichigan) is currently at the lowest level in the last 65 years:
2) Trump declaring in recent days that a new Imperial, post-democratic age is upon us, and that he does believe himself or his regime to be bound by the US Constitution, domestic US law, the UN Charter, international law, and Senate-ratified treaties.
3) Congressional Republicans are increasingly willing to challenge all this lunacy, and it appears that this week we may have found a pulse in America’s legislative branch.
You can see me talking about these three big, related issues on CNN this morning in the clip above and in my weekly talk this week. We will also be talking about these issues and more with Lincoln Square’s Stuart Stevens live at 11am EST. Click here to join us. Will be a good one!
We have spent most of our week discussing items 1 and 2 (here, here, here, here). A new must-read NYT interview with Trump provides an ever deeper window into Trump’s madman declaration of a new, post-democratic Imperial Age (gift link):
Here we go:
President Trump declared on Wednesday evening that his power as commander in chief is constrained only by his “own morality,” brushing aside international law and other checks on his ability to use military might to strike, invade or coerce nations around the world.
Asked in a wide-ranging interview with The New York Times if there were any limits on his global powers, Mr. Trump said: “Yeah, there is one thing. My own morality. My own mind. It’s the only thing that can stop me.”
“I don’t need international law,” he added. “I’m not looking to hurt people.”
When pressed further about whether his administration needed to abide by international law, Mr. Trump said, “I do.” But he made clear he would be the arbiter when such constraints applied to the United States.
“It depends what your definition of international law is,” he said.
Mr. Trump’s assessment of his own freedom to use any instrument of military, economic or political power to cement American supremacy was the most blunt acknowledgment yet of his worldview. At its core is the concept that national strength, rather than laws, treaties and conventions, should be the deciding factor as powers collide.
And…..
In his conversation with The Times, Mr. Trump sounded more emboldened than ever. He cited the success of his strike on Iran’s nuclear program — he keeps a model of the B-2 bombers used in the mission on his desk; the speed with which he decapitated the Venezuelan government last weekend; and his designs on Greenland, which is controlled by Denmark, a NATO ally.
When asked what was his higher priority, obtaining Greenland or preserving NATO, Mr. Trump declined to answer directly, but acknowledged “it may be a choice.” He made clear that the trans-Atlantic alliance was essentially useless without the United States at its core.
Even as he characterized the norms of the post-World War II order as unnecessary burdens on a superpower, Mr. Trump was dismissive of the idea that the leader of China, Xi Jinping, or President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia could use similar logic to the detriment of the United States. On topic after topic, he made clear that in his mind, U.S. power is the determining factor — and that previous presidents have been too cautious to make use of it for political supremacy or national profit.
The president’s insistence that Greenland must become part of the United States was a prime example of his worldview. It was not enough to exercise the U.S. right, under a 1951 treaty, to reopen long-closed military bases on the huge landmass, which is a strategically important crossroads for U.S., European, Chinese and Russian naval operations.
“Ownership is very important,” Mr. Trump said as he discussed, with a real estate mogul’s eye, the landmass of Greenland — three times the size of Texas but with a population of less than 60,000. He seemed to dismiss the value of having Greenland under the control of a close NATO ally.
When asked why he needed to possess the territory, he said: “Because that’s what I feel is psychologically needed for success. I think that ownership gives you a thing that you can’t do, whether you’re talking about a lease or a treaty. Ownership gives you things and elements that you can’t get from just signing a document.”
The conversation made clear that in Mr. Trump’s view, sovereignty and national borders are less important than the singular role the United States plays as the protector of the West.
Here is Trump both 1) confirming his declaration of a new Imperial age, where law no longer applies and the only check on him is in his “own mind.” 2) that he is taking things from other countries to make him feel STRONG and POWERFUL - “that’s what I feel is physiologically needed for success.”
It’s a formal, public confirmation of his evolution from American President into a deeply dangerous Mad King.
In his wild presser yesterday where the Vice President blamed Renee Nicole Good for her own death, Vance confirmed that the regime believes it has entered a post-democratic, post-rule of law age, shockingly asserting that the paramilitaries terrorizing our communities have something called “absolute immunity” - a concept that literally cannot exist in any understanding of a democracy.
From the CNN article (above)
“The idea that a federal agent has absolute immunity for crimes they commit on the job is absolutely ridiculous,” said Michael J.Z. Mannheimer, a constitutional law expert at Northern Kentucky University’s Salmon P. Chase College of Law.
As for #3 here’s is the WaPo this am (and there are other insider DC pubs echoing this sentiment this am):
Here’s how it opens, and note that in one of the House votes yesterday 35 Republicans voted against Trump - 35!!!!!! (gift link):
Significant numbers of Republicans joined with Democrats in voting against President Donald Trump’s interests on high-profile pieces of legislation Thursday, suggesting his party’s unyielding loyalty to this point in his term has started to splinter.
Earlier in the day, the Senate advanced a bipartisan measure intended to block the Trump administration from conducting further military action in Venezuela. Five Republicans joined every Democratic senator in advancing the resolution, following the White House’s capture of Venezuela’s president, without explicit permission from Congress.
The resolution is expected to get a chilly reception in the House if it passes the Senate, with Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) unlikely to bring it to the floor. But it gave Senate Republicans an opportunity to come out against continued military action in Venezuela — which Trump and some administration officials have refused to rule out — without congressional approval.
Trump survived House votes to overturn two of his vetoes, which requires two-thirds of the chamber, but at least two dozen Republicans voted with Democrats to defy his will, demonstrating a greater willingness than seen last year to buck their party’s president. Thirty-five Republican lawmakers voted to override Trump’s veto of the Arkansas Valley Conduit Act, a bill meant to aid a decades-old Colorado water project, while 24 Republicans voted to negate Trump’s veto of the Miccosukee Reserved Area Amendments Act, which codifies tribal land rights in Florida.
After those votes, House Democrats, with help from Republicans, passed a bill to extend expired enhanced Affordable Care Act subsidies, a measure opposed by both Trump and Johnson. Seventeen Republicans supported the measure, which would need to pass the Senate before becoming law.
Lawmakers voting against their party’s president is common in midterm election years, particularly for vulnerable lawmakers who represent swing districts. Yet the repeated rebukes of the president, and the number of lawmakers defecting, are unusual. And they represent a continued challenge for GOP leaders with limited majorities, who are struggling to corral their colleagues behind the president’s agenda.
As our CNN segment (do watch!) discusses yes, our Mad Kingy leader felt emboldened this week. STRONG, POWERFUL, and MANLY he and the White House told us. And then, yesterday, those little people at the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue, had the audacity - the audacity - to interfere with his vainglorious Venezuelan victory lap:
I want to remind folks that this day of rebukes and repudiation follows the Senate voting to roll back Trump’s tariffs; the House voting to overturn Trump’s executive order on worker’s compensation; his failure to keep the government funded and open; the entire Congress voting to force him to end his rancid cover up and release the Epstein files; MTG’s very public, ongoing rebuke of Trump and her resignation; the courts, including the Supreme Court, continually ruling against him and constraining his ambitions. Here’s The Hill’s homepage right now. Holy natives are restless Batman!
Little cracks are becoming much bigger cracks, my friends, as we all hoped and have worked towards. They are growing weary of defending the indefensible. Congratulations everyone. What happened yesterday was no small thing.
But yes Trump’s malevolent madness is all out there for everyone to see - they aren’t even trying to hide it any longer - which is why it’s time to put our heads down, fight hard for our great country, and……
Winning The Midterms - Support Our Candidates
Hopium Winning The House Campaign (2026) - $57,500 raised, $250,000 goal (new stretch goal) - Donate to all four endorsed House challengers with one click | Learn More | Enjoy our new conversations with Christina Bohannan (IA-01), Mayor Paige Cognetti (PA-08), Jo Mendoza (AZ-06), and Janelle Stelson (PA-10)
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Expanding The Senate and Electoral College Maps, Winning In Red States and Red Places (2026-2032)
Hopium’s Audacious Expansion Fund - $264,000 raised, $500,000 goal (new stretch goal) - Join our new campaign to expand our map by investing in the Democratic Parties of Alaska, Florida, Iowa, Maine, and Texas. Many thanks to two generous Hopium community members who have audaciously donated $10,000 to each of our five state parties
This recent post recapped our our very 2025 together. In three new essays (here, here, here) I look forward to next year and discuss how one of the ways we win the 2026 midterms is by providing early support to our candidates and parties to allow them to staff up, be loud, define the terms of the debate now, before the inevitable onslaught on AI slop, Russian disinfo, and Trumpian lies funded through bribes and corruption wash across the land.
The midterms could be won or lost in these next few months - not in the fall of 2026 - and we need be fighting now with everything we got.
Winning The Big Arguments With Trump, Defend Our Democracy - We have two recommended actions today:
1 - Call Your Senators and Member Of The House And Demand They Act Upon Our Five-Part Agenda - We need to be loud people, very, very loud and make the case for our now five part agenda:
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; demand Congress rebuke/issue a no confidence vote on his current efforts to force Ukraine to surrender
Congress must stand forcefully for rule of law in the Caribbean and the Pacific - these illegal strikes must end; no war can be waged without Congressional approval; there must accountability for those who have broken the law, and the US must withdraw from Venezuela and cease other threats to violate the UN Charter and the sovereignty of other nations
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. To put America on a sounder fiscal course due to the enormous deficits brought by Trump’s 2025 tax cuts we should reverse these cuts to the wealthy and corporations
Defend our democracy, rule of law, and our liberties by blocking the expansion of ICE; restoring due process for immigrants across the country; vigorously defending the 1st Amendment; warring against his outrageous targeting of his domestic political opponents; ending the use of the military on our streets and the dangerous occupation of our cities; stopping the unprecedented regime corruption; and by forcing the Administration to finally comply with Congress end the rancid cover up of the Epstein crimes.
Fight Trump’s war on science, higher education and our public health; reverse - not delay - the cuts to the ACA, Medicaid and our clean energy investments; support and co-sponsor the Stand Up For Science/Rep. Haley Stevens effort to remove Robert Kennedy from HHS.
2 - Celebrate America, Our Constitution, Our 250th Birthday By Bringing Our Resolutions Project To Your Community - This July 4th America celebrates it’s 250th birthday. We need to make this holiday, a celebration of our Declaration Of Independence from a mad king, our day, and not allow it to become his.
One way we can do this is by bringing our Resolutions Project to your community or state. Imagine if by July 4th of next year a large number of towns, counties and states had passed formal resolutions, in the spirit of our Declaration of Independence, defending our Constitution and condemning the “injuries,” “abuses,” and “usurpations” of our mad king. For as our Founders wrote in the Declaration:
But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.
So far Hopium members have introduced or passed resolutions in 85 communities in 23 states. In the coming days we will be convening to discuss how to bring this campaign to more places and start planning to Own The Fourth next year.
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!
Keep working hard everyone. We have a lot of work ahead of us - Simon
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