Donald Trump may have handed Democrats one of their most potent weapons in the fight for Senate control — and he did it back in January, almost without anyone noticing.
According to a New York Times report on Republican fears ahead of the midterms, Trump's January attack on Sen. Susan Collins of Maine could be deployed by Democrats this fall to suppress Republican turnout in one of the most consequential Senate races in the country.
After Collins voted with Democrats to curtail Trump's war powers following his military action against Venezuela, Trump declared on Truth Social that she "should never be elected to office again." The Times notes that Democrats could now use that quote directly against Collins — not to persuade Republican voters to vote Democratic, but simply to demoralize them enough to stay home.
Collins holds one of the seats Democrats must flip if they hope to take back the Senate majority. The race is already considered a toss-up.
The revelation underscores a broader pattern the Times identifies in its reporting: Trump has repeatedly taken actions that damage his own party's electoral prospects, from endorsing scandal-plagued Ken Paxton in Texas to creating a $1.8 billion fund to compensate January 6th rioters. But the Collins case is unique because the damage was self-inflicted months ago and has been quietly sitting there ever since, waiting to be used.