While she has done little more than state facts, Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) is emerging as the only Republican member of Congress currently willing to call out the fact that Donald Trump and Elon Musk’s lawless DOGE crusade is stripping Republicans in the House and Senate of one of the main powers they possess as elected officials: to create agencies and fund the federal government.
Earlier this month, as TPM pressed Senate Republicans on Capitol Hill about Musk’s rampage — and got little but shrugs in response — Collins came forward to say she was “concerned” about the amount of power Trump had given the unelected billionaire. She warned then that many of DOGE’s actions — freezing congressionally allocated funds, firing government workers, probing sensitive taxpayer data — was “going to end up in court.”
Since then, no other Republicans have taken their rhetoric any further. A handful of Senate Republicans have subtly broken with the Trump administration to publicly discuss how important certain funds that have been frozen are to their constituents — like the handful who have been limply, publicly negotiating with the Trump administration to get back funding for crucial medical research in their state.
Collins doubled down during an interview with Politico Wednesday, going as far as suggesting that the Trump administration might be breaking the law with its recent DOGE actions.
“I think it’s pretty clear that this violates Article I of the Constitution,” Collins told Politico before warning, “You would see lawsuits” if the DOGE recklessness continues.
“A lot of these issues are going to end up in court,” she said, again, before suggesting to Politico that it is not up to her to determine how to challenge the Trump administration’s actions.
It’s a less-than-stunning rebuke from a senator who tends to very carefully pick her moments, sticking her neck out alongside Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) to defend women’s issues, but barely ruffling feathers when it comes to breaking with her colleagues on other issues. But on the Senate side, she’s the only Republican willing to criticize the DOGE break-ins, thus far.
And the contrast is stark against the backdrop of the work her colleagues in the lower chamber are doing to turn Musk’s disastrous rampage into legislation via the House Subcommittee on Delivering on Government Efficiency.
The Best Of TPM Today
The latest from Josh Kovensky: Trump DOJ Tries To Bully Its Way To End Of Eric Adams Prosecution
New Episode of The Josh Marshall Podcast: Ep. 361: The Big Adams Apple
President Trump Says He Offered Michael Flynn ‘About Ten Jobs’ In The New Administration
Project Veritas Video At Heart Of Latest Trump Admin Improper Interference At DOJ
Yesterday’s Most Read Story
Is This Why Musk Keeps Using the Same Dozen Tech Micro-Bros for Each Takeover?
What We Are Reading
Oops: Trump-Musk Cuts Just Wrecked an NIH Org Championed by GOPers
The second election of that man to the White House has already proved to be an utter disaster. Some one needs to stand up to his lawlessness and criminality. I have a funny feeling it ain’t gonna be Senator Collins.
The only thing Collins is concerned about are her prospects for re-election. Her votes against are always carefully calibrated to be meaningless.
Nobody on either side of the aisle has any respect left for her. Nobody.
Susie apparently does the best impression of someone who truly gives a shit that’s ever been done on the planet. This whole country falls for it over and over and over and over again. She’s a better fake than Lucy with the football.
On a related note, I keep revising my view of exactly what Trump and Co. really want to destroy., as I read TPM’s suggested articles about what’s slated for gutting each day. First I thought it was the Obama and BIden eras, then the Great Society, then the New Deal, then the Civil War…Now I think it’s the Enlightenment they’re actually gunning for. And I get why Trump would hate that, but how does a guy who apparently aspires seriously to rocket himself and others to a planned community on Mars simultaneously aim to destroy all of science?
The failure of the government to provide necessary and legally required services, such as audits by the USDA and the FDA and other regulatory agencies, which are required for export and import, is going to lead to massive disruption in the global supply chain. We are just a few months away from a Great depression caused by sabotage of the economy.
I’m glad that Susan Collins is concerned.
Kafka is not concerned.