President Donald Trump has called up several Republican senators to berate them over a recent vote the upper chamber held seeking to restrict his executive powers.
The president privately unloaded on Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD). Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME), who was viewed as one of the more surprising Republican supporters of the war powers resolution aimed at checking Trump’s military action in Venezuela, was also the recipient of a “very mad, very hot” phone call.
“He called her and then basically read her the riot act,” a Senate GOP member said of Trump’s “profanity-laced rant” to Collins in comments to The Hill.
Collins was one of five Republicans who endorsed a procedural vote Thursday to advance the war powers resolution. Sens. Rand Paul (R-KY), Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), Josh Hawley (R-MO), and Todd Young (R-IN) also backed the resolution, as the upper chamber prepares to vote on its final passage next week.
Trump also expressed his frustration with Thune during a call just prior to the Thursday vote, though the Senate majority leader is not supportive of the resolution and is lobbying members not to back its final passage.
“There’s a level of frustration at the White House — and with us, too, on a vote like that,” Thune said Friday in comments acknowledging the “very spirited” conversation.
“Obviously, we’d love to have some of our colleagues come back around on that issue,” he added. “The constitutional questions, the legal questions, are being more sufficiently answered as people have probed into it.”
Senate Democrats pushed passage of the War Powers resolution after Trump authorized an extraordinary military operation that toppled former Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro as the country’s leader and brought him to stand trial on narco-terrorism charges in New York. The White House justified the move on the basis of concerns that Maduro endorsed sweeping drug trafficking schemes undermining U.S. security, stole oil from Washington, and conducted sham elections that installed him as an “illegitimate” leader.
Trump said the United States would “run” Venezuela following Maduro’s lightning capture, prompting questions from both sides of the aisle about the use of executive authority and congressional approval for military operations that could be interpreted as acts of war or regime change. Acting Venezuelan President Delcy Rodriguez, a longtime ally of Maduro, is now running the country with Trump’s tentative approval and has carried out several reforms, including the release of some political prisoners and cooperation with the U.S. to rebuild its ravaged oil industry.
In the days leading up to Thursday’s vote, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) pressed Republicans skeptical of the administration’s operation ousting Maduro to back the resolution, as the bipartisan measure restricts further military operations against Venezuela without congressional approval.
After Collins and four other GOP senators sided with Democrats to advance the resolution, Trump said, “They should never be elected to office again.”
Thune has downplayed those comments, framing them as “a short-term, immediate reaction to something he felt strongly about.”
“But I think he — like all of us — wants to make sure that we have a Republican majority in the Senate, and we all know … in the state of Maine, the way to make that happen,” he said, suggesting Trump would come around to backing Collins.
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Collins is up for reelection in 2026 and is viewed as one of the most vulnerable GOP incumbents in the Senate.
“The president obviously is unhappy with the vote. I guess this means that he would prefer to have Gov. Mills or somebody else with whom he’s not had a great relationship. I don’t know, I’m just not going to comment,” Collins told reporters when pressed for her reaction to Trump’s statement.