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The Sunday Telegram’s recent front-page coverage of Sen. Susan Collins has been a more effective endorsement of her than any editorial or op-ed you could print. Any fair discussion of Collins’ earmarks and influence over defense spending must be balanced against her complicity with Trump administration disasters. Consider:

• Maine’s forest products, seafood and manufacturing industries are losing market due to Trump’s tariffs and trade policies.
• Canadian tourism, a lifeline for our hospitality economy, has fallen sharply.
• Healthcare and hospitality businesses have lost workers and customers after masked, armed federal agents showed up to arrest and intimidate non-white legal residents, including at their workplaces.
• Maine’s leadership in wind and solar energy is eroding as this administration blocks clean energy development.
• Coastal property values are at risk as federal agencies halt research into climate change and sea level rise.
• Cuts to Medicare, along with the vaccination and research rollbacks under Collins-backed Secretary Kennedy, will mean more sickness and higher health costs.
• The inflationary effects of this administration’s foolish wars and tax cuts for the ultra-wealthy will burden Mainers for years.

This is far from everything. But it shows that Trump’s policies, supported or only weakly opposed by Sen. Collins, have damaged this state, with more harm to come. If this publication wants to inform readers rather than promote a candidate, its news coverage should cover these costs the same as Collins’ so-called Washington, D.C., influence.

Arnold Macdonald
South Freeport