Morning all. Senators left town last night without a deal to reform DHS/ICE so tonight DHS will run out of money. While it is hard to know what will happen the Trump regime is clearly in retreat right now - ending the surge in Minnesota, breaking off the DHS appropriations from the rest of the funding package, negotiating now with Democrats on reform. As we discussed yesterday Democrats are stronger now, Trump is weaker, and it is critical that Democrats use our advantage to get the very best deal possible in the consequential days ahead.
As we press forward it’s important that Democrats fight not only to end the violence and the lawlessness of ICE, but as we discussed with Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, we must also be explicit that we oppose mass deportation, will fight to block the building of additional detention centers, and want ICE to focus on criminals and leave the rest of us alone.
Last night we got news of a Trumpian retreat on another front - tariffs. Here are excerpts from a new FT article:
Donald Trump is planning to scale back some tariffs on steel and aluminium goods as he battles an affordability crisis that has sapped his approval ratings ahead of November’s midterm elections.
The US president hit steel and aluminium imports with tariffs of up to 50 per cent last summer, and has expanded the taxes to a range of goods made from those metals including washing machines and ovens……
……The people said trade officials in the commerce department and US trade representative’s office believed the tariffs were hurting consumers by raising prices for goods such as pie tins and food and drink cans.
Trump’s tariff blitz has pushed US duties to their highest level since before the second world war. But the president has repeatedly walked back some of his stiffest levies amid voter anger at the US’s affordability crisis.
More than 70 per cent of US adults rate economic conditions as fair or poor, according to a Pew Research Center poll published this month. About 52 per cent of Americans think Trump’s economic policies have made conditions worse.
The move to soften the steel and aluminium tariffs, which were among the earliest introduced in Trump’s second term, comes as economists say that Americans are paying for the levies, undercutting the president’s claim that foreign companies would bear the burden.
Trump’s trade war has also brought political backlash, even from some allies.
On Wednesday, members of Trump’s own Republican Party joined Democrats as the US House of Representatives voted to overturn Trump’s tariffs on Canada — delivering a major rebuke of his trade war on the US’s second-biggest trading partner. Trump is expected to veto the bill, leaving the levies in place.
Several Republican lawmakers face tough election battles in their home states in November’s midterm elections amid voter anxiety about the impact of tariffs on small businesses and consumers.
Even the insidery pub Axios is running a story on the growing resistance to Trump (and implicitly his ebbing powers):
Little by little, week after week, a subtle but significant shift is unfolding in American politics: Institutions and even a small but growing number of Republicans are standing up to President Trump.
Along with this eye-popping image of a teeny, tiny Trump:
What is the big lesson from the last few months? When we fight Trump we can win, and so we should be doing it far more often, and on many more fronts.
Another Important Front We Must Open Up - Standing Up For Science - We’ve seen a torrent of dangerous, batshit crazy anti-science moves from the regime this week - somehow Trump just voided the clear link between greenhouse gases and a warming planet; HHS launched a “Real Food” media campaign featuring Mike Tyson, a convicted rapist; yesterday the FDA announced it was refusing to even consider Moderna’s new mRNA flu vaccine:
A senior US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) official says Moderna’s clinical trial on a new, potentially more effective flu vaccine was a “brazen failure” and that the FDA is now calling it into question.
The FDA unexpectedly refused to consider Moderna’s application for a flu shot based on messenger RNA (mRNA) technology in a decision that experts say is already having a chilling effect on vaccine development.
Officials say the issue is the design of the study, in which control group participants over the age of 65 should have received a high-dose flu shot instead of a standard flu shot.
Outside experts say the reasons seem to go deeper.
“It’s all pretext and obfuscation when the real agenda is rejecting conventional science and serving a predetermined anti-vaccine agenda,” said Richard Hughes IV, a partner with Epstein Becker Green and law professor at George Washington University.
Dorit Reiss, professor of law at UC Law San Francisco, said “personally humiliating a company is not a legitimate reason to refuse to review a submission”, and the refusal needs to “address substantive reasons”. Angela Rasmussen, an American virologist at the Vaccine and Infectious Disease Organization at the University of Saskatchewan, says “they’re just coming up with reasons to not approve mRNA anything, and they’re going to eventually do it to all these vaccines”.
As a result of this attack on their mRNA technology - the tech that saved us from COVID - Moderna announced the halting of late stage trials into three incredibly promising vaccines:
And yesterday our ridiculous HHS Secretary openly questioned germ theory that is a cornerstone of modern medical science by saying that he used to snort cocaine off toilet seats and didn’t get sick (yes the man in charge of our health in America is making “snorting cocaine off toilet seats” great again):
We are fighting the regime on affordability/tariffs, on health care, on ICE (and mass deportation/detention centers too), on the rancid Epstein coverup, and now we must up open a sustained front against their deepening descent into anti-science lunacy. For MAHA, climate denialism, and anti-science are dangerous for our country, for our health, for our prosperity, for our security, and for our future.
Our friends at Stand Up For Science are holding a National Day of Action on Saturday, March 7th. Events are getting scheduled all across the country:
Learn more, sign up, organize one of your own, here. I hope members of this community will lean into this important day, and help our movement open up and a new sustained front to fight the deepening and dangerous anti-science of the Trump regime. Like this fight to rein in ICE and end mass deportation, this fight for science is a righteous fight very much worth having.
Democrats Head To The Munich Security Conference - It is great to see our leaders waving the freedom flag in Europe this week. From The Guardian:
US Democrats will use a security summit this weekend to urge European leaders to stand up to Donald Trump, with the continent divided over how to keep the unpredictable US president on side.
Democrats at the annual Munich Security Conference will include some of Trump’s most outspoken critics, such as the governor of California, Gavin Newsom, the New York congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the Arizona senator Ruben Gallego and the Michigan governor, Gretchen Whitmer.
Newsom has already urged Europeans to realise that “grovelling to Trump’s needs” makes them “look pathetic on the world stage”, telling reporters at the World Economic Forum in Davos last month he “should have brought a bunch of knee pads”.
Gallego was almost as forthright. “[Trump] is destroying our world reputation or potentially our economic might around the world because he is being petty. None of this is rational. Everyone needs to stop pretending this is rational,” he said.
Here’s Politico with more:
CONTINENTAL DIVIDE: The first foreign policy proving grounds of the 2028 Democratic presidential primary run through not a debate stage in Manchester, New Hampshire, but Munich, Germany.
No fewer than six potential 2028 Democratic presidential contenders are set to burnish their foreign policy bona fides today at the Munich Security Conference — Davos for the national defense set — offering a rejoinder and contrast to VP JD Vance’s scathing criticism of the continent in the same forum last year……
……….
Taken together, the 2028 Democrats’ presence at the event will almost certainly represent the most high-profile and substantive foreign policy rebuttal Democrats have offered during Trump 2.0 — and come at a time of fraying international alliances.
“I’ve been doing this type of travel for a while,” Sen. Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.) said when asked by Playbook about all the ambitious Democrats in attendance this year. “I think maybe other people are using this as an opportunity for them to flex whatever they want.”
Gallego, who is meeting with Baltic foreign ministers and Spanish PM Pedro Sánchez, told us his message to foreign leaders in Munich will be that “the relationship between our allies, our friends, is still strong. Donald Trump will be gone in three years. We have senators here that are going to be here longer than him, and we need to continue growing our relationship and making sure we have a secure future.”
Whether on the official stage or in sideline events, at least half a dozen possible presidential contenders will be present in Munich this year alongside Gallego: Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Ocasio-Cortez, Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.), California Gov. Gavin Newsom, Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and former Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo.
Kelly is also taking meetings with European leaders and NATO and defense officials. On the sidelines, he’ll meet with wounded Ukrainians and Baltic leaders.
Raimondo is leading a panel discussion on economic security and emerging technology. A spokesperson said she’ll argue that economic security is national security and “make the case that the U.S. must invest in its leadership in emerging tech (AI, quantum and biotech) and derisk its supply chains in order to strengthen its national security and outcompete China. And she’ll say that the best way to do that is by working with our allies and partners.”
But AOC and Newsom seem to be generating the most buzz. The two are expected to lay out their own visions for America’s relationship with the world, drawing a direct contrast with Vance and Rubio. Both are expected to reassert that America has a role to play in Europe, people familiar with their planning and messaging for the event tell Playbook, though the flavor of their remarks is expected to diverge.
Newsom, who will participate in the conference’s main program today, will deliver remarks on the economic need for climate action. He’ll also have two bilateral meetings today, Playbook has learned: one with German Federal Minister for the Environment Carsten Schneider, and one with EU Commissioner for Climate Wopke Hoekstra.
Tomorrow, he’s expected to formalize a new partnership with Ukraine through the signing of a memorandum of understanding with regional leaders, per his office. He’ll meet with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and deliver remarks on strengthening transatlantic cooperation. “While Trump divides and destabilizes, California is focused on stability, cooperation, and expanding economic opportunity for all,” his office said. Overall, Newsom will deliver a message that “President Trump is temporary. California is not,” according to a background briefing on his remarks from the governor’s office.
I will be reporting on this important gathering in the days ahead, and now……
Keep contacting your Congressional Reps and demand they rein in ICE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! DHS funding runs out tonight and we need to keep fighting!
Winning The Midterms - Support Our Candidates
Hopium’s Winning The House Campaign (2026) - $162,000 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). Now including funds already raised with our friends at FridayAction for a joint event we are doing in May.
Mary Peltola For Alaska Senate - $32,900 raised, $250,000 goal - Donate | Volunteer and learn more. Amazing start everyone!
Winning Ohio - $58,600 raised, $250,000 goal - Our new campaign splits contributions evenly among Sherrod Brown, the Acton/Pepper ticket, and the Ohio Democratic Party. Donate today and help us turn this critical 2026 battleground blue! | Watch my conversation with David Pepper, who does a great overview of the opportunities we have in Ohio this year. Note a generous donor has sent $21,000 worth of Hopium-infused contributions directly to the candidates which are not included in our on-line goal tracker.
Roy Cooper for NC Senate (2026) - $76,500 raised, $250,000 goal - Donate | Learn More | Volunteer | Enjoy my conversation with Gov. Cooper and a new, terrific one with NC Dem Party Chair Anderson Clayton
Jon Ossoff GA Senate (2026) - $126,500 raised, $250,000 goal - Donate | Learn More | Volunteer | Enjoy my inspiring conversation with Senator Ossoff
Expanding The Senate and Electoral College Maps, Winning In Red States and Red Places (2026-2032)
Hopium’s Audacious Expansion Fund - $366,300 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
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 new threats to seize Greenland and his new, dangerous European tariffs;
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 the 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.
Keep working hard all. The momentum is with us, and we need to keep fighting as hard as we can - Simon
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