Former President Donald Trump made a string of false statements on a Monday call to Maine supporters during which he repeatedly referred to Gov. Janet Mills as “he” and conflated issues affecting the lobster industry.
Trump’s call, a recording of which was provided to the Bangor Daily News by someone who opted into it, came on the first day that early voting was available to people across the state. It showed the Republican presidential nominee fixated on winning the conservative-leaning 2nd Congressional District for the third time since 2016.
Yet the call was most notable for its content. He spoke for more than 15 minutes, urging supporters to make a plan to vote early for him and then rambled across subjects, including his pet issue of immigration, while leveling rare and wrong attacks at Maine Democrats.
For example, Trump said Maine has a “radical left” governor. His underlying claim came from a Mills economic plan from 2019 that called for growing the workforce by 75,000 people over a decade. After Mills called for an Office of New Americans last year, conservative politicians and websites falsely portrayed the governor as only seeking foreign-born people to meet that goal.
“He wants to resettle 75,000 migrants into Maine. That’s only because [Biden and Harris] told him to do so,” Trump said on the call, referring to Mills by the wrong pronoun several times and saying current immigration policies would turn Maine into a “third world” country. “He’s weak and ineffective, and they told him to do so, and he’s saying, ‘Yes, sir. Yes, ma’am. I will do it.’”
A Trump campaign spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment on the call, which Maine supporters were invited to with a robocall that came just after 6:30 p.m. Monday. The former president has done similar “tele-rallies” to ring in early voting in other states, including recent ones in Virginia.
Trump began the call by promoting state Rep. Austin Theriault, R-Fort Kent, who is facing U.S. Rep. Jared Golden, a vulnerable Democrat from the 2nd District. He called Theriault “fantastic” before saying that Golden votes with Harris “virtually a hundred percent” of the time. He opposed President Joe Biden more than any other House Democrat last year.
The former president pivoted back to actions he took during his presidency related to the lobster industry. During a 2020 trip to Bangor, he signed an executive order opening a national marine monument in the Gulf of Maine to fishing. It heartened regional fishing interests, but it had little effect for Maine fishermen because it is far out of range off Cape Cod.
On Monday, Trump seemed to conflate that 5,000-square-foot area with the so-called gray zone covering 277 square miles on the contested eastern Maine maritime border with Canada. Officials there have recently reported illegal American fishing, while U.S. Border Patrol agents boarded Canadian fishing vessels in 2018 during Trump’s administration.
“The Canadians are able to fish there, but the Americans aren’t. We’re going to open it up,” Trump said. “You’re going to have Maine lobster and you’re going to have it right near you. Think of it, 5,000 square miles.”
Trump’s call underscored the historic importance of Maine to his campaigns. He visited the state five times ahead of the 2016 election. Four years later, he dropped into a Levant orchard less than 10 days before Election Day. Neither Trump nor Harris has visited Maine this year as they war over swing states including Pennsylvania, Michigan, Georgia and Arizona.
On the call, he repeated his past hope of winning the entire state of Maine. Decision Desk HQ, the BDN’s election results partner, gives him an 84 percent chance of winning the 2nd District but favors Harris statewide at 93 percent odds of winning. He said he may come back to the state ahead of the election, which is now a toss-up with Harris.
“If [the liberal 1st District] can go with [the 2nd District], I think we’d win the election even more easily,” Trump said.
