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Must-Win Republican Candidate Brutally Snubs Trump on Debate Stage

Susan Collins is not welcoming the president to Maine with open arms as she desperately fights to hold on to her Senate seat.

Republican Sen. Susan Collins has given President Donald Trump the cold shoulder during a televised debate that could make or break her re-election hopes.

Collins, a vulnerable five-term senator from Maine, was asked if she would welcome Trump to campaign alongside her—a question that comes on the heels of Trump telling reporters Monday that he is considering traveling to Maine to campaign.

Moderator Gregg Lagerquist asked Collins, “We’ve heard Donald Trump’s name several times here, so let me ask you directly. President Trump this week said that he might actually visit Maine. Will you stand with him if he does?”

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Collins awkwardly answered: “I don’t think that President Trump is going to come to Maine. He’s talking about going to a lot of different, uh, states. I’ve heard nothing from his office, and I’m not exactly his favorite, uhh, senator, I—”

“So yes or no?” Lagerquist interrupted. “Do you have a yes or no to that?”

Collins once again skirted the straightforward question by repeating her refrain.

“I would say that he is not coming to Maine,” she said.

As Collins, 73, struggled with her answer, her opponent, Troy Jackson, a 58-year-old logger and former Maine Senate president, shook his head in exasperation.

Trump has been crisscrossing several states in a frantic campaign push as Republicans are poised for a disastrous Election Day. Multiple Republican candidates have sought to distance themselves from Trump, whose approval rating continues to fall as war rages on with Iran and prices remain sky-high at the pump.

Trump teased a possible trip to Collins’ backyard on Monday, saying, “I think we’re going to Maine, too.”

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The White House and Collins’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Collins’ Trump snub comes as the president’s standing remains underwater in Maine, where 40 percent of registered voters approve of his job performance compared to 59 percent who disapprove, according to a Marist poll from this month. The same survey found Collins on the brink of losing her Senate seat after nearly 30 years in power, trailing Jackson by four points.

Collins, who has spent years walking a political tightrope in purple Maine—occasionally breaking with Trump without losing his backing—repeatedly highlighted how she has pushed back on the president’s unpopular policies, like tariffs, during the debate.

But Jackson pounced on her history of siding with Trump, delivering a stinging line after Collins noted that she voted against the final passage of Trump’s “Big, Beautiful Bill”—after voting to advance it in the Senate.

“Senator Collins is like an arsonist who helped set the fire, and she wants credit for bringing a cup of water to put it out,” he said. “She could have stopped it.”

Collins was the subject of a Pro Publica investigation released last month that claims the Trump administration gutted the FBI division investigating a possible bribery case against Collins and cleaned out the lawyers in charge at the Department of Justice. Collins dismissed the allegations as a “partisan hit job.”

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Erkki ForsterNight News Reporter

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