Morning all. Something important happened in our politics this week - the national discourse began to truly reflect how much Trump’s political project has unraveled and how likely it is that Democrats are going to make major gains across the country this November. That he is likely to lose, and we are likely to win. That he is weaker and more desperate, and that we are stronger and steadier. There’s been what some would call a vibe shift in the coverage as the discourse catches up with the reality here and abroad; a reality that is this - Trump is indeed a titanic and dangerous f-ck up, far more a painted clown than a President, the country and the world have turned on him, and the American people are ready to put us back in power.
Let’s revisit some of what we learned this week:
Trump has been badly beaten by Iran, America is far weaker today, gas/diesel prices have soared here, inflation remains too high, and interest rates are rising:
We’ve gotten a lot of polling this week and it has painted a very dire picture for Republicans. We saw three credible polls this week with had Democrats ahead in the generic ballot by double digits. There were reports that the Rs are thinking about writing off the GA and NC Senate races. Greg Sargent had a terrific analysis in the New Republic showing how much money Trump’s SuperPAC is spending on very red House districts, including ones he won by more than 10 points in 2024. Credible, independent polls had Mary Peltola up 5 in Alaska, and Talarico up 6 and Hinojosa up 4 in Texas, shocking results that suggest the blue wave could be a very, very big one this November, certainly big enough to hand us the House and Senate. Stories about the deteriorating electoral battlefield coursed through the media this week. Here’s the lead story in the Washington Post this morning:
The story has this remarkable, well-crafted and almost comical passage:
Trump
in recent weeks has become sober about the gravity of the politicalsituation, listening intently as he is presented with often discouraging polling, according to four people with knowledge of his recent comments, all of whom spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations. That shift has prompted himto take more action on the midterms — pledging to stump for candidates and opening his war chest in competitive races, for example — although it remains to be seen how effectively Republicans can gain ground over the next six weeks.Trump has long dismissed unfavorable polls, fastening his attention on surveys that present him in an artificially positive light. He often says that negative surveys are fake and not to be believed. Increasingly, however, he has accepted his team’s polling that shows his and his party’s poor standing with voters, his advisers say.
Several of Trump’s advisers said they had become “increasingly blunt” with him, as one put it, and that in recent weeks he was listening to them about the electoral reality the GOP faces. It didn’t always translate to a good mood for Trump.
We saw signs of rot, panic and Trump’s loosening grip throughout the GOP ecosystem this week. The House rebuked Trump on Iran; they were on track to lose a House vote on Impeaching Pete Hegseth and had to shut down the chamber until after the election; the Supreme Court handed him a big loss on his mail ballot ploy and the Fed essentially rebuked him and condemned his economic policy by raising the Federal funds rate; a prominent Trump loyalist Member of the House produced an ad brutally condemning his mass deportation policy; and Karl Rove said he was voting for a Democrat in Texas this November.
The furious, manic flooding of the Senate races with Republican polls we’ve been tracking here is another clear sign of their desperation and panic. With six new polls released yesterday - yes six in a single day - they have now released 32 polls in 14 states by 7 pollsters in 9 days:
There are signs of escalating panic, unraveling, and madness throughout the regime. Trump banned MS Now, CNN, and Politico from the White House yesterday. Bobby Jr. appeared on stage with one of the craziest anti-vaxxers in the world this week. Rather than figuring out how to win the war in the Middle East Pete Hegseth announced this batshit policy yesterday:
Trump’s unhinged obsession with the Kennedy Center hit new heights this week as he appeared ready to demolish a national monument to a slain President, leading to a huge protest last night in the shadow of his ridiculous tarp:
While all this is very encouraging we must also acknowledge that Trump’s disastrous time in office has produced rising threats to our prosperity and security that we cannot ignore or dismiss - government budgets across the world are being batter by higher interest rates and inflation including ours; consumers, small businesses, and farmers here and everywhere are also being battered by Trump’s immense global failure, making things more unstable throughout the world; the wars in the Middle East and Russia-Ukraine are escalating; the climate crisis isn’t abating; and every day we see new reports about the grave potential dangers of AI.
So while I think the discourse has begun to catch up with the political realities of the moment, I don’t yet think it has caught up to the gravity of the crises Trump’s disastrous tenure has left us. That Europeans leaders in the past few days have moved to something akin to war footing, anticipating a new wave of aggression from Russia has barely made the news here.
I write all this today for we cannot lose sight for one moment about the gravity of the moment and the importance of the opportunity in front of us to now make things better. Trump has destabilized the world. We now must begin the arduous task of putting things right, and that begins by making this election a clear and univocal repudiation of him and his terrible regime. He is a weakened figure, his hold on our politics and the media is loosening, and now we must…..
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This fund now splits a contribution evenly among 18 candidates - Bob Brooks (PA-07), Rebecca Cooke (WI-03), Elaine Luria (VA-02), Sean McCann (MI-04), Johnny Garcia (TX-35), Bob Harvie (PA-01), Lindsay James (IA-02), Jake Johnson (MN-01), Jessica Killin (CO-5), Nancy Lacore (SC-01), Chaz Molder (TN-05), Jonathan Nez (AZ-02), Dr. Richard Pan (CA-06), Denise Powell (NE-02), Dr. Amish Shah (AZ-01), Janelle Stelson (PA-10), Shannon Taylor (VA-01), and Marni von Wilpert (CA-48). You can watch interviews and learn more about these great candidates here.
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Keep working hard all. We have a country to save, and elections to win all across the country, together! - Simon
