Watch now

We Are Americans. Fighting For Freedom and Democracy Is What We Do (Video)

Trump has had a very bad week of polling, and complaints from Rs are becoming more common

Simon Rosenberg Feb 20

Morning all. Last night I spoke to a large gathering of Hopium paid subscribers. I kicked it off with 25 minutes of initial remarks on Trump’s ongoing and historic betrayal of America and the West, and then took questions for another 35 minutes or so. The recording is above and you can find a transcript too by clicking through to the Hopium site. Please watch, listen and share with others you think might be interested.

In my talk I reviewed many of the main themes we’ve discussed here over the past few weeks. My updated Hopium Daily Reminder is a good summary of where I think things are now:

Trump 2.0 is a profound, ongoing betrayal of America, and everything that has made this remarkable nation the most powerful and prosperous in the world. It is why we must fight. As dark as all this is, we cannot for one moment forget that what Trump is doing is wrong; he and his project remain deeply unstable and his coalition fractious; he is doing deeply unpopular things, going far beyond his narrow “mandate;” he is old, impulsive, reckless and clearly in decline; and extremists and ideologues are often far better at bread and circuses than governing.

Above all else he is a weak man, not a strong man, yielding, cowardly, to Musk and Putin as they dismantle the “America of the Four Freedoms.”

In today’s post I want to bear down on one part of what we discussed last night - recent polling, and the small cracks that are emerging in Trump’s Congressional support.

We’ve gotten a lot of polls in the past 10 days, and Trump has seen a meaningful decline in his job approval in most of them. In many of these polls we are seeing the highest disapproval rating of any President at this point in their Presidency ever recorded, even higher than his first term. He has lost 6 points of job approval this past month in 538’s tracker. His approval rating is 15-20 points below where Biden was at this point, and even further below the average Presidency at this point over the past 70 years. He is underwater now in 8 polls, and now regularly in the 50s in disapproval (all polls can be found at 538):

• Quinnipiac 45-49

• Civiqs 46-50

• Pew 47-51

• Gallup 45-51

• Reuters 44-51

• Marquette 48-52

• CNN 47-52

• WaPo/Ipsos 45-53

In the new CNN poll Trump has seen the following declines from a month ago:

• Overall 55-45 (+10) to 47-52 (-5) - a 15 point swing

• 18-34 y/o 57-43 (+14) to 41-57 (-16) - a 30 point swing!

• People of Color 45-54 (-9) to 36-62 (-26) - a 17 point swing

• Indies 49-51 (-2) to 43-56 (-13) - an 11 point swing

The CNN poll found broad dissatisfaction with Trump’s lack of results on lowering costs:

Most adults nationwide, 55%, say that Trump has not paid enough attention to the country’s most important problems and 62% feel he has not gone far enough in trying to reduce the price of everyday goods. Sizable shares across party lines share the latter view, including 47% of Republicans, 65% of independents and 73% of Democrats. In CNN’s January polling, the economy eclipsed all other issues as Americans’ top concern.

Here’s the Gallup summary. Trump is -12 on the economy, already.

Here’s the summary from the new WaPo/Ipsos poll released this morning:

53% disapproval is only 2-3 points lower than where Joe Biden was when he left the Presidential race last year.

Here’s the top story of the Washington Post this morning being seen all over Washington:

As Trump’s approval falls, inflation rises, the economy slows and his madness and betrayal become impossible to ignore, cracks are starting to appear in the President’s Congressional support. This week we’ve seen stories of prominent Republicans complaining, on the record, about Trump selling out Zelenskyy, Musk’s illegal dismantling of the government and the savage cuts to health care in the House GOP budget. Trump endorsed the House budget bill this week and attacked the Senate version and it’s primary author Lindsay Graham, a reckless thing to do to the Senators who have had to eat his outrageous Cabinet picks.

Last night 8 House Republicans sent a letter to Speaker Johnson suggesting they could not support the Trump-backed House budget bill scheduled to be voted on next week:

Eight House Republicans who are members of the Hispanic conference or represent large Hispanic populations are publicly pressing Speaker Mike Johnson to not slash Medicaid, food assistance and Pell Grants in his budget plan.

The group’s new letter to Johnson Wednesday is a serious escalation of private concerns lawmakers have been airing in recent days. House GOP leaders are pressing for rank-and-file lawmakers to back the latest budget plan on the House floor next week — the next step to unlock their massive, party-line bill that spans energy, border and tax policy.

GOP Reps. Tony Gonzales (Texas), Monica De La Cruz (Texas), David Valadao (Calif.), Juan Ciscomani (Ariz.), Rob Bresnahan (Pa.), Nicole Malliotakis (N.Y.), along with Dels. James Moylan of Guam and Kimberlyn King-Hinds of the Northern Mariana Islands, sent the letter to Johnson Wednesday. That means six voting members are further complicating Johnson’s plans.

The speaker faced at least a dozen holdouts on his budget plan Wednesday, ahead of President Donald Trump’s social media post that both chambers should advance the House GOP’s resolution. Their concerns included deep cuts to Medicaid, SNAP and other safety-net programs.

In the letter, the lawmakers wrote that nearly 30 percent of those enrolled in Medicaid are Hispanic and the health care program is “expected to bear the brunt of these reductions” with a proposed $880 billion in cuts under the Energy and Commerce Committee. The lawmakers noted: “for many families across the country, Medicaid is their only access to healthcare.”

“Slashing Medicaid would have serious consequences, particularly in rural and predominantly Hispanic communities where hospitals and nursing homes are already struggling to keep their doors open,” the lawmakers added.

The group also noted that large numbers of families in their districts and territories rely on SNAP food aid benefits.

With hard work little cracks can become big cracks. Little wins can become big wins. So we just need to keep working it everyone.

And remember - Trump is not a strong man, he is a weak man. The Great Betrayer. Donald The Weak. We beat MAGA and Trump in 2018, 2020, 2022, throughout 2023 and can do so again this year.

Now, Let’s Get To Work!!!! - Here are my current working recommendations for calls/contacts this week. Four today, and thanks to all of you who are busting your ass right now:

• Keep calling to stop Musk’s crime spree and assault on the US government. Encourage your Senators and Reps to file a criminal referral for him and his malicious posse to DOJ/FBI; insist Senators and Reps file amicus briefs in the court cases regarding the usurpation of their Constitutional authorities or file suits of their own; encourage them to hold a daily morning press conference to more aggressively challenge Musk’s ransacking of the USG that is making America less prosperous, less healthy, less safe and far less respected in the world.

• For those of you who live in AZ, CA, CO, IA, MI, NE, NJ, NY, PA, VA, WI please start talking to your local orgs - state and local Democratic parties, grassroots groups, traditional Dem allies - about mounting a campaign targeting the most vulnerable 17 Republican House Members to urge them to vote against the emerging - and disastrous - House budget plan. We launched this new effort on Tuesday, and while we should be urging all our Senators and Reps to vote against these emerging plans, those of you can work these 17 House Rs have a special role to play in the coming battle over the budget. As we saw above Rs are wavering on this terrible House budget bill and we need to keep working it people!

• Keep calling Attorneys General in the states. Ask them to protect you and your data, tax returns and privacy, and to keep federally mandated monies flowing to your states and communities. For those in the 19 states that brought the successful Treasury suit thank them and encourage them to keep going. I still believe these 19 states should make criminal referrals of Musk/his posse to DOJ/FBI and raise the stakes.

• 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.

The 17 most vulnerable House Republicans

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.

A note - while physical protests and rallies are a vital part of how we build our new opposition movement, make sure you only attend or promote events by organizations you know and trust. Please do not support any action - boycott, protest, rally, etc - unless you know and trust the organizers. Given the import of our work now I don’t think it wise or advisable to lend our support to newly formed, opaque organizations without a proven track record of working with Democratic groups and leaders.

For those wanting to do more traditional political/campaign work we have three Hopium-backed efforts we're rallying behind right now:

Help Get Ken Martin Off To A Strong Start - In this time of extraordinary challenge we need a strong DNC. Two weeks ago we set a goal of raising $100,000 by March 31st for our new Chair. Incredibly, over 1,000 of you have donated over $86,000 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. We now have a new stretch goal of $150,000 by March 31st after our very strong start for this effort (note that we did have some money clawed back due to an error in the amount someone gave!)

Help Susan Crawford and Ben Wikler in Wisconsin - As a way of honoring our good friend Ben Wikler and supporting this critical April Supreme Court race in Wisconsin, I’m 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.

Watch our new discussion with Susan and Ben and thanks to a huge surge of support in recent days we have already raised $69,000, blowing past our $50,000 goal. We are now upping this to a stretch goal of $100,000 by March 31st. Amazing work everyone!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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 $40,000 so far towards our March 31st goal of $100,000 - thank you all. Let’s keep working it for Abigail!

More Things To Do - Dive into my recent interviews with folks who are making a difference. Check out our upcoming events. Register for my March 5th event with Heather Cox Richardson!

Keep working hard all. Proud to be in this fight with all of you - Simon