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President Donald Trump phoned Sen. Susan Collins and angrily criticized her for voting in favor of a war powers measure following the U.S. military operation in Venezuela. The call came after the United States invaded Venezuela on Saturday and detained President Nicolás Maduro.
On Thursday, five Republicans joined all 47 Democratic senators in voting to advance legislation that would require the president to obtain congressional approval before taking further military action against Venezuela.
The Republicans who backed the measure were Collins, Sens. Lisa Murkowski, Rand Paul, Josh Hawley, and Todd Young. The Hill reported Friday that Collins received a tense phone call from Trump following the vote.
“He called her and then basically read her the riot act,” one Republican senator told the outlet, describing the call as a “profanity-laced rant.”
A second source said Trump told Collins the resolution would limit the president’s authority. “He was very mad about the vote,” the source said. A spokesperson for Collins confirmed the call occurred but declined to comment on its contents.
Trump publicly criticized Collins and the four other Republicans earlier Thursday in a post on Truth Social.
“This Vote greatly hampers American Self Defense and National Security, impeding the President’s Authority as Commander in Chief,” Trump wrote.
“In any event, and despite their ‘stupidity,’ the War Powers Act is Unconstitutional, totally violating Article II of the Constitution, as all Presidents, and their Departments of Justice, have determined before me,” he wrote.
During his second term, Trump has leveraged the struggle against illegal drug trafficking to oust Venezuela’s president, Nicolás Maduro, and to intimidate other nations in the region with the prospect of military intervention.
Trump added that “a more important Senate Vote will be taking place next week on this very subject.” Collins is seeking re-election this year, but Maine is very purple and she has survived strong challenges from Democrats several times.
The Senate, meanwhile, confirmed journalist Sara Carter to manage federal drug policy with a 52-48 vote on Tuesday.
Trump praised Carter’s reporting on the illicit drug trade last March.
“My work in the frontlines wasn’t just about telling stories, it was about mapping the enemy,” Carter told senators in the Judiciary Committee during her September nomination hearing. She touted her work covering drug cartels and said Trump’s border crackdown reduced the flow of drugs like fentanyl into the United States. That crackdown also reduced the flow of U.S. weapons into Mexico, she argued, which often end up in cartels’ possession.
“I have seen these predatory criminal empires operate with impunity in our hemisphere. That impunity ends now,” Carter told senators. “This is not just a public health crisis, it’s a chemical war being waged against the American people.”
Carter, as the head of ONDCP, will be instrumental in supervising federal policy and funding concerning drug trafficking, substance use prevention, treatment, and recovery.
“Thank you @realDonaldTrump for your confidence and faith in me to lead the charge to end the scourge of illegal drugs that have killed millions of Americans and have robbed too many families of their children. I will work tirelessly to support your vision to put every Narco-terrorist on notice, letting them know their days of killing Americans are over,” Carter wrote on X.
“I, along with our team @ONDCP will work everyday to put American families first and to build a safer healthier America, free of illicit drugs. We will provide every American with the tools and resources to protect themselves and their children from drug addiction- we’re in this fight together, we can’t win this alone,” Carter added.
Carter said that while she isn’t “a doctor, a general or a lawyer,” she is a “more than two-decade investigative journalist who was on the ground in the field, witnessing firsthand what these cartels and what these terrorist organizations have not only done to our nation and to the rest of the world, but to our children.”
