WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump laced into Graham Platner on Wednesday, calling the Senate candidate from Maine a “thug” and a “pig” and suggesting that the Democratic Party was hypocritical for lining up behind someone with so many questions about his past personal conduct and treatment of women.
That line of political attack was striking coming from a president who himself has been accused of misconduct with women, was once caught on audiobragging
about grabbing women by the genitals and was found liable by a New York jury for sexual abuse.
Trump also has endorsed a parade of Republicans with their own personal baggage — but that didn't stop him from faulting the other side for doing the same.
“He’s a thug, and they’re trying to make excuses for him,” Trump said of top Democrats. “I mean, he’s worse than any human being that’s ever run for office, probably.”
Platner, who clinched the Democratic nomination on Tuesday night, has faced criticism over numerous issues, including past inflammatory online posts, a tattoo he had covered up that is widely recognized as a Nazi symbol and sexually explicit texts he sent to women after getting married. He will face five-term Republican Sen. Susan Collins in the November election.
Asked about Trump's comments, Platner's campaign said the candidate remained focused on issues facing Maine.
The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, in response, issued a statement focused on Collins, who is considered one of the most vulnerable senators up for reelection this year.
“Susan Collins is facing backlash in Maine after voting with Trump 96 percent of the time, being the decisive vote for the justices who overturned Roe v. Wade, and selling out to the special interests that fund her campaigns after three decades in the Senate, and that’s why Trump praised her today in the Oval Office,” spokesperson Josh Marcus-Blank said in a statement.
The White House defended Trump's comments by noting Platner's past social media posts.
“Graham Platner proudly referred to himself as a ‘communist,’ called all police ‘bastards,’ and said rural White Americans ‘actually are’ racist and stupid. President Trump is absolutely correct that Platner is both a thug and a pig. Attempting to compare President Trump to Graham Platner is exactly why trust in legacy media outlets like the failing Associated Press is at an all-time low,” White House spokesperson Kush Desai said in a statement.
Trump, when speaking about Platner to reporters at the White House during an event to sign an immigration and deportation funding bill, said, “Nobody’s ever had a record like that.”
“He’s like a pig,” the president said, adding that perhaps “pigs would be very upset” to be associated with Platner, drawing laughter from assorted Republican lawmakers in the Oval Office with him.
Trump then brought up another scandal that has swirled around him dating back to his first term as president: his former friendship with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Trump sought to paint Democratic Senate leader Chuck Schumer as a hypocrite, saying he “goes crazy over this or that or Epstein, Epstein, Epstein” but instead should be concerned about Platner.
Later, Trump offered, “Can you imagine if the Republicans had him?”
Setting aside the allegations Trump has faced over the years, Republicans have had candidates who were accused of serious misconduct who nonetheless won Trump's backing.
The president this year endorsed Republican Texas Senate candidate Ken Paxton over incumbent GOP Sen. John Cornyn, though Paxton had faced state and federal corruption investigations and a 2023 state impeachment trial in which he was acquitted but publicly exposed his extramarital affair. Paxton has said allegations of wrongdoing were politically motivated.
Trump also didn't back away from endorsing 2017 Alabama Senate candidate Roy Moore, who was accused of sexual misconduct involving teenage girls decades earlier. Trump, at the time, noted Moore’s denials and said his vote was needed for Republican priorities. Moore's eventual loss gave way to the first Alabama Democratic senator in a quarter-century.
He endorsed 2024 North Carolina gubernatorial candidate Mark Robinson and declined to rescind the backing after CNN reported that the candidate had made lewd and racist comments on a pornography website — though he did try to distance himself. Robinson, who later acknowledged making the posts, handily lost the general election in the swing state.
He similarly decided not to revoke his support for Texas Rep. Tony Gonzales this year after the congressman acknowledged an affair with a staff member who later died by suicide. Gonzales ended his reelection bid, and Trump later endorsed someone else.
Trump also picked officials for his second-term Cabinet and other key offices who had been accused of some form of sexual misconduct.
That includes Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who was accused of sexual assault and denied it, and Trump’s initial choice for attorney general, former Rep. Matt Gaetz, who faced a Justice Department sex trafficking investigation and a House Ethics Committee investigation into sexual misconduct.
Gaetz denied wrongdoing and withdrew his name from consideration. The DOJ investigation ended without federal charges against him.
