Must-Win GOP Senator’s ‘Presidential Level’ Private Flights Exposed

Photo Illustration by Thomas Levinson/The Daily Beast/Getty/Reuters Welcome to Midterms Meltdown, a special pop-up newsletter from The Swamp—bringing you up to the minute with the secrets the politicians don’t want you to know about the race to November 3.

It is the most consequential election campaign since 2024, and the nooze will be oozing around the nation to shape D.C. for the next two years and beyond.

Our David Gardner, Farrah Tomazin , Sarah Ewall-Wice , and Laura Esposito are getting down and dirty with the inside stories from the battlefields every Monday and Friday.

Melting down in The Swamp today are : Barack Obama, Machine Gun Kelly, George W.

Bush, Bernie Sanders, Susan Collins, Carlos Santana, Adam Hamilton, Anna Kelly, James Talarico, Graham Platner, Scott Jennings, Sherrod Brown, Ted Cruz, Tin Man, Troy Jackson, Scarecrow, and the Cowardly Lion.

Republican Senator’s Shock Celebrity Jet Perk Revealed Susan Collins ’ re-election campaign spent more than $163,000 on private jets over the past year—even as the vulnerable GOP Senator begged supporters for gas money to fuel a statewide tour, The Swamp’s Farrah Tomazin can exclusively reveal.

As the 73-year-old Republican fights to hold onto one of the most closely watched seats at November’s midterms, federal finance records reveal three of her political committees spent $163,563 between 2025 and 2026 to buy the kind of luxury air travel more often associated with celebrities and CEOs than a Senate race in Maine.

The figures come two months after the Daily Beast revealed Collins begged supporters for as little as $5 to fuel her re-election campaign—despite voting several times to uphold the Iran war, and her husband Thomas Daffron, 83, holding thousands of dollars’ worth of oil and gas stocks.

“Organizing a tour of this scale takes a lot of coordination, enthusiasm, and quite literally fuel,” an email from Team Collins read at the time.

“Will you chip in just $5 today to help us put gas in the tank and keep our team moving forward?” The biggest private jet bills went to Florida-based Exclusive Charter Service, which counts Coldplay, Machine Gun Kelly and Carlos Santana among its clients.

The service urges customers to “get accustomed to the luxe private jet life,” with perks such as 24/7 jet charter, VIP catering, and global ground transportation.

The other major vendor was Advanced Aviation Team, which advertises “presidential-level service” and was founded by former White House Travel Office directors who worked for George W.

Bush and Barack Obama .

Both parties have used it, including during Kamala Harris’ 2024 presidential race and Bernie Sanders ’ 2020 presidential primary campaign.