During a press conference at the Portland Jetport, U.S. Rep. Chellie Pingree said she is concerned about the extent of the authority granted to unelected presidential advisor and Tesla CEO Elon Musk on Feb. 4, 2025. (Photo by AnnMarie Hilton/ Maine Morning Star)
U.S. Rep. Chellie Pingree said her office has received an “unprecedented” amount of calls in recent days from constituents troubled by the actions of the Trump administration.
The Democrat who represents Maine’s 1st Congressional District reiterated that she didn’t support President Donald Trump in the November election, but having read Project 2025, the conservative political playbook that many expected to guide the early days of a second Trump term, she felt like she had an idea of what could come.
“But I don’t think any of us expected this last two weeks of chaos and illegal activity,” Pingree said during a press conference at the Portland International Jetport Tuesday morning.
The congresswoman said the constituents who have called her office are “panic stricken.” Farmers, small business owners and people who have never called their representatives before have rung to say they are concerned about threats to freeze federal funds and they are bothered that Tesla CEO Elon Musk, an adviser to the Trump administration, has been granted access to sensitive information.
Pingree said she shares the concern about Musk, adding that the extent of the authority given to the unelected advisor “seems blatantly illegal.”
Under Trump’s direction, Musk has been leading the Department of Government Efficiency, which was created through an executive order with the mission to slash federal spending and shrink the size of government. So far, in his role as a special government employee, Musk has had his hand in shuttering the U.S. Agency for International Development and accessing sensitive Treasury data.
Pingree, a member of the House Committee on Appropriations, said she is baffled by what she sees as unconstitutional actions from the White House, especially because Republicans control not only the executive branch, but also both chambers of Congress. Issues around spending should be going through Congress, which controls the government’s purse strings. Instead, she said the administration is going to “force” its priorities by doing “whatever it takes to just get what they want.”
Pingree also said her Republican colleague, U.S. Sen. Susan Collins, who chairs the Senate Appropriations Committee, is in a “very challenging position” because it will be “tricky” to be a member of the same party and be asked to make certain cuts by the Trump administration.
“I hope our whole delegation can be there to make the right decisions for Maine,” Pingree said.
But Pingree said she doesn’t even see this as a partisan issue. Rather, it’s about how the U.S. government was meant to operate.
“I don’t think any self-respecting Republican or Democrat thinks that you should have an unelected billionaire shutting down departments of government, making spending cuts, deciding issues of international health or domestic education or any of the things that he’s involved in doing,” she said, again referring to Musk.
Pingree said she expects Republicans may soon start speaking up, adding that she has served with Republicans on the appropriations committee for many years who would be “aghast” if a Democratic administration was acting in this way.
Independent U.S. Sen. Angus King echoed Pingree’s message in a social media post Monday, which said his office has fielded more than 3,000 calls from constituents concerned about what they are seeing play out in the federal government.
In the post, King, who usually caucuses with Democrats, also called some actions of the Trump administration “unlawful and unconstitutional.” He said it is necessary for the other branches of government to provide the necessary guardrails against “recklessly destructive” proposals.
Pingree said Democrats are doing “everything we can.” She spoke of 20 lawsuits already launched against Trump’s executive orders from state attorneys general, nonprofits and federal employees, as well as the Democrats who showed up but were denied entry to the USAID office Monday.
Because congressional Democrats are in the minority, Pingree said, they don’t have the authority to sue the executive branch. Only U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Mike Johnson has this authority, but he won’t authorize it.
The active lawsuits and those coming down the pipeline are the “most important avenue,” Pingree said. Trump’s actions such as seeking to end birthright citizenship and trying to take away the power of spending from Congress are not only unconstitutional, but don’t make strong legal arguments, Pingree said.
“It’s as if they are more intent on causing chaos than actually winning in court,” she added.
Republican legislators stand by Trump administration’s actions
During a press briefing in Augusta Tuesday, Maine Senate Republican Leader Trey Stewart defended Musk, saying his advisory role is common in state and federal government. He said there are unelected folks in Augusta that advise him and other elected lawmakers into different decisions: “That’s the way it works.”
“Who you listen to, that’s a choice that you’re going to have to make, a judgement call as an elected official,” Stewart added. “But that’s not a unique thing to what’s happening right now with Mr. Musk and President Trump.”
Stewart said Maine should follow Musk’s approach to reviewing its own spending. While he added that he will leave it to federal attorneys to determine whether the tactic is constitutional, Stewart said it “seems to be working from a fiscal conservative standpoint.”
“This is not crazy folks,” he said. “We should be reviewing regularly what government’s doing and spending your money on, and if it’s not working we should fix it. If it is working, fine.”
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