President Donald Trump’s administration thrust Maine and its public universities into a period of uncertainty in recent weeks by freezing and then unfreezing funding for programs while investigating state policies on transgender athletes.
U.S. Sen. Susan Collins, the lone Republican in Maine’s congressional delegation, has taken credit for getting the Trump administration to reverse some of those decisions. But she avoided answering a question Monday about whether she blames Trump for what top university system officials called “the whiplash and worry” of recent weeks.
“I see that all of your questions seem to have a bias built into them,” Collins told a reporter Monday while touring Eastern Maine Community College’s Public Safety Training Center in Bangor.
Her office did not respond Monday to an additional emailed request for comment. It is the latest example of Collins trying to play a balancing act with Trump back in office. She voted to convict Trump in his impeachment trial tied to the Jan. 6, 2021, U.S. Capitol riot and remains New England’s lone Republican in Congress ahead of a run for a sixth term in 2026.
The stakes are high for the state. The Trump administration started freezing federal funds for Maine in recent weeks, and six federal agencies opened investigations into Maine and its schools after state Rep. Laurel Libby, R-Auburn, made a viral social media post last month that singled out a transgender Maine high school student who won a state track and field title. Trump got wind of that post and then verbally sparred with Gov. Janet Mills over Maine’s policies that currently allow two transgender girls to compete in sports.
Asked if she has spoken directly with Trump since he took office in January and then targeted Maine, Collins said she spoke with Vice President JD Vance and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick to get the administration to change its mind this month on canceling the Maine Sea Grant. The $4.5 million initiative that provides environmental and economic research along Maine’s coast was the only one of its kind to be cut nationally before Trump’s administration agreed to “renegotiate” the funding.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture also abruptly froze and then unfroze this month tens of millions of dollars in funding to the University of Maine System. Collins did not elaborate on which officials she spoke with on that matter but said she has “been successful in reversing both of those ill-advised decisions.”
“It’s much more effective for me to communicate directly with people I know well in the administration and make the case [to] them, because that’s how you achieve results,” Collins said Monday, adding that “I doubt very much” that Trump is aware of the Sea Grant program.
Last month, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office for Civil Rights swiftly determined Maine is violating anti-discrimination statutes under Title IX by allowing two transgender girls to participate in girls’ high school sports. Legal experts said the Trump administration’s interpretation of Title IX may not stand up in court, and the federal government interviewed no state or local officials before making its finding four days later.
Experts view Maine as a test case for how the Trump administration may try to force its policies on states, regardless of existing state laws. Republicans have pointed to polling showing wide support among Americans for banning transgender female athletes from girls’ and women’s sports. Several hundred people rallied Saturday at the State House to oppose Maine’s policies.
Collins did not touch on the pending investigations in Monday’s brief interview but mentioned the Social Security Administration also quickly reversing its decision this month to cancel a program in Maine that allows parents to register their newborns for Social Security numbers from hospital maternity wards.
She mentioned how she called acting Social Security Commissioner Lee Dudek, who apologized and called it a mistake. Collins said she agreed and that it was not “some sort of deliberate action to cut off funding for the state of Maine.” The brief move also cut a contract allowing information on Maine deaths to be shared with the federal agency electronically.
“My ability to call him directly and say, ‘Do you realize what’s happened here, and why would you want to terminate these contracts? This doesn’t make sense,’ is very valuable,” Collins said. “And as I’ve said, he was incredibly apologetic and said that it had simply been a mistake.”
