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The president-elect is not the president.
Donald Trump won the presidency through the atavistic Electoral College. Not by a landslide. Not with a mandate. Not by a majority of the popular vote in the U.S. Neither by the electoral majority nor popular vote in Maine.
I hope that Sen. Susan Collins will think on this as she weighs bowing to Trump’s will — before and after Inauguration Day. Most immediately by rejecting who I believe to be Trump’s most dangerously unqualified nominees — Pete Hegseth, Tulsi Gabbard, Robert F. Kennedy Jr and Linda McMahon.
Sen. Margaret Chase Smith burnished her conservative credentials and was a credit to her Republican Party at its lowest point, before 2016. If in the infancy of her tenure Smith could take a stand against McCarthyism, then perhaps with her seniority, Collins can take a stand against MAGA.
Annlinn Kruger
Bar Harbor