WAR GAMES

Desperate Must-Win Republican Throws Trump Under the Bus

Susan Collins slammed one of the president’s favorite topics.

Maine Sen. Susan Collins has thrown President Donald Trump under the bus during a fiery debate.

Collins, 73, took part in her third debate with her Democratic challenger for Maine, Troy Jackson, 58, on Tuesday.

The vulnerable Republican has represented Maine in the Senate for nearly 30 years and is seeking to win her sixth term in the U.S. Senate, something no senator from the state has done before.

But Collins faces an uphill battle, with Jackson scoring 50 percent support in a Washington Post poll, compared to 46 percent backing her re-election. The poll was conducted between Sept. 30 and Oct. 5.

Last month, she revealed having a tremor she medicates, a health condition she kept secret for decades. In August, she begged supporters for as little as $5 to “help us put gas in the tank” of her campaign bus, a controversial move given Collins’ husband holds thousands of dollars worth of oil and gas stocks, and she has voted multiple times to back Trump’s war with Iran.

During Tuesday’s debate, both politicians were discussing the ongoing war with Iran, which began on Feb. 28, when Collins distanced herself from the president.

Jackson said Trump got America into the war, then noted, “he doesn’t have a plan about how to get out of it. It isn’t going the way that he expected and we’re in a real mess. We’re in another forever war, that again, Senator Collins could have stopped.”

He added, “Right now, there is no plan to get out of this war, and it might go months, it may go another year... you’re gonna see people that are gonna go bankrupt, you’re gonna see people that’ll lose their homes... because Donald Trump wanted to play war games and when Susan Collins had the chance to stop him, because she’s Chair of Appropriations, she would do not that.”

Collins, who became the first Republican woman to chair the Senate Appropriations Committee when she assumed the role in January 2025, responded by saying she voted to rein in Trump’s war powers once the military conflict passed 60 days.

In March and April, she voted against attempts to curb America’s involvement in the war, the Daily Beast reported in August, citing Senate records. Later in April, as the war and its impact on gas prices made the conflict highly unpopular with voters, Collins began voting against the war, according to the Maine Morning Star.

“I agree that the president did not have a good plan,” Collins admitted on Tuesday. “He should have anticipated the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, through which part of the world’s oil travels, and I don’t feel that that was well anticipated, although it should have been.”

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The Republican said, “Actually, Troy and I agree that the war should come to an end. And there were not the votes. I voted no. I voted with the Democrats to bring the war to an end, but there were not sufficient votes for that to happen.”

During the debate, Collins also pointed out another issue she had deviated from Trump on.

“I have been extremely outspoken in my opposition to Canadian tariffs and I have voted repeatedly to repeal them,” she said. Collins has voted four times to join Democrats opposing Trump’s tariffs on Canada, according to PolitiFact.

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The Daily Beast has contacted the White House for comment.

In a debate last week, Collins had another embarrassing moment when she was roasted online after being asked about her voting to allow Trump’s divisive “Big Beautiful Bill” to move forward in the Senate, leading to Medicaid cuts and increased healthcare costs.

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Jackson then pointed out that Collins “has been a government employee her entire life, she’s always had healthcare, she’s always had a steady income coming in. That’s not the way it is for most of us; healthcare is a real challenge and she’s made it worse by advancing the ‘Big Beautiful Bill.’”

After his comments, Collins stated “First of all, I have not been insured my whole life. I spent a year, when I was running for governor in 1994, where I could not afford health insurance.”

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