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Trump has lately bitten his tongue about the Republican senator for Maine, Susan Collins, even as she strenuously tries to distance herself from him on everything from July’s fatal ICE shooting in Maine to Trump’s recent imposition of punitive tariffs on Canadian goods.

Insiders say the president’s silence is strategic: He needs Collins to win if the Republicans are going to hold their Senate majority. “He’s pragmatic, a practical guy, always has been,” says a senior Republican strategist who knows Trump well. “Is there any other Republican who could win in Maine?”

Over her career, Collins has made an art form of leveraging her votes, and the possibility that she might cross partisan lines, to support Maine projects. Trump’s arrival, though, blew up Collins’s preference for precision and process.