As our leader in chief practices his battleship diplomacy, trying to intimidate and frighten countries and regimes into bending to his bidding through use of bombs, blockades, invasions and rhetoric, he has cast the United States as a worldwide pariah. Our allies have refused to assist in the quagmire he has created in the Middle East at the behest of his buddy, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

American soldiers are being killed and injured. He has threatened countries with invasion while Sen. Susan Collins, on the Select Committee on Intelligence, has continued to support his actions and repeatedly voted against any limitation of his war powers. 

As the president continually usurped Congress’ purse-string powers with executive orders to implement tariffs, punitive trade deals and enter conflicts — actions that have continually raised the costs of food and products for the average and most needy of Americans, people already enduring his restrictions on benefits and insurance — Sen. Susan Collins, chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, has failed to call into question his actions. Collins supports Trump at every opportunity.

Susan Collins’ actions in the Senate offer an illustration of what is currently wrong with our federal government and the current state of our democracy.  It is time for her removal.

Jeffrey Pike
Winthrop