CARIBOU, Maine — President Donald Trump should only strike Iran as a “last resort” to fraught negotiations over a potential nuclear deal, U.S. Sen. Susan Collins told reporters Friday.
The Trump administration has been surging naval and air forces into the Middle East in recent weeks. It came to a climax on Friday as the U.S. embassy in Israel said non-military staff could leave the country, citing “safety risks.”
It’s unclear whether the military moves are a signal of a strike or negotiating tactic from the Republican president, something Collins acknowledged after her Friday appearance at a Veterans of Foreign Wars event in her home city of Caribou.
“Of course, Iran remains a threat to Israel, to Europe and to us. It is also the No. 1 one of terrorism across the world,” she said. “So Iran certainly is a dangerous actor, but in my view, the use of force should be the last resort.”
Trump expressed disappointment on Friday about U.S. negotiations with Iran over its nuclear program and warned that “sometimes you have to use force” after increasing diplomatic and military pressure on Iran in the weeks since an Iranian crackdown on protesters in an attempt to force the country’s rulers to not obtain nuclear weapons.
Iran denies it is seeking to develop nuclear weapons and wants any accord to include the lifting of U.S. sanctions against it.
“They cannot have nuclear weapons. And we’re not thrilled with the way they’re negotiating. We’ll see how it all works out,” Trump told reporters as he left the White House on a trip to Texas.
Collins, a Republican who is in a difficult 2026 race for a sixth term, voted last year to preserve Trump’s ability to strike Iran and supported the targeted bombing of three nuclear facilities as an offshoot of the 12-day war between that country and Israel. But she voted with Democrats in 2020 to limit his authority to wage war there.
Democrats plan to force another vote on war powers next week. Collins did not answer a question about her stance on it, restating her general view that separates limited strikes and longer conflicts.
“If we’re talking about a long term engagement of American troops and boots on the ground, in my judgment, Congress has to approve that,” she said.
Reuters contributed to this report.