Political Pulse

U.S. Sen. Susan Collins of Maine has been the focus of national attention — and scorn among Democrats — as Republicans dutifully carried out President Donald Trump’s controversial plans for tax cuts while slashing billions of dollars from Medicaid, foreign aid and public broadcasting. While Collins ultimately opposed both measures, the intense Democratic response signals the 2026 election has officially arrived in Maine.

In a final burst of activity, state lawmakers closed out the 2025 legislative session this week by passing dozens of additional bills, dealing with everything from guns and reproductive health to affordable housing.

Nearly one year after President Donald Trump’s supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol in the hopes of stopping certification of the 2020 election, the Maine House of Representatives debated a resolution commemorating the assault on Congress that ultimately led to the conviction of more than 1,270 rioters.

Maine's legal showdown with the White House over transgender athletes could affect schools and students nationwide, especially if the Trump administration’s lawsuit against Maine becomes the national test case.

Some members of Congress, including most of Maine's delegation, are increasingly uneasy with President Donald Trump's tariffs — but efforts to curtail his power are likely going nowhere.

Welcome to April and a political news cycle that never stops. This week we’re going to focus on a few developments with the goal of providing a little clarity and context that isn’t always achievable when news breaks and deadlines loom.

It’s been a bewildering barrage: hasty investigations, threats to yank federal funds, threats of lawsuits, federal contracts canceled and restored without explanation and unsupported claims by President Donald Trump that Maine has “apologized.”

Trump has said repeatedly he wants Canada to become the 51st state. It's a statement sometimes laughed off in the U.S., but viewed as deadly serious in Canada.

“See you in court.” With those four words, Gov. Janet Mills went from a 77-year-old governor serving the last two years of her final term in a lightly populated state to an unlikely heroine of the Trump resistance.

Maine’s new, three-day waiting period on gun purchases passed the Legislature by the slimmest possible margin last year and narrowly averted a veto from Democratic Gov. Janet Mills. Now, gun rights advocates think the law could become the vehicle to erase waiting period laws in Maine and roughly a dozen other states.