In the Senate, Collins Often Defies Trump but Rarely Stops Him

Michael Gold and Catie Edmondson, who cover Congress, reported from Washington. Andrea Fuller, a data reporter, analyzed thousands of Senate votes.

It was approaching midnight on the Senate floor, and a vote that had been meant to last 15 minutes had dragged on for nearly three hours as Senator Susan Collins, Republican of Maine, weighed whether to kill one of President Trump's top priorities.

It was hardly the first time she had faced such a choice.

Throughout Mr. Trump's two terms, Ms. Collins had frequently criticized the president and voted against his initiatives more often than anyone else in her party. She cherished her reputation as one of the few remaining independent-minded Republicans in the Senate, which helped explain her enduring popularity in her purple home state. Yet she had more rarely blocked the president's agenda outright.

On that night last summer, Ms. Collins had the chance to do so. The senator, the chairwoman of the committee that controls federal spending, was deeply opposed to a bill Mr. Trump had demanded to cancel $9 billion in foreign aid and public broadcasting money that Congress had approved.

She had prepared an amendment to shield the Corporation for Public Broadcasting from the cuts, a move that had bipartisan support. But if she succeeded, conservatives loyal to the president would all but certainly refuse to back the spending cuts. Given Republicans' slim majority, their opposition could have doomed the bill, blocking Mr. Trump's plan altogether.

After hours of wavering, Ms. Collins decided not to try to make the change. In what amounted to a largely symbolic move, she voted "no," on the bill, registering her opposition to revoking the spending even though it was clear the measure had enough Republican votes to pass.