This was why she didn't vote to bar him from running again after his impeachment post January 6th, and I just really want to know what she was smoking. If I lived in Maine I would call up her office and ask.
She's fairly powerful within the Senate and brings substantial amounts of money and jobs to Maine in the form of government contracts.
She just announced that she'll be running again in 2026, which would be her seventh term. Recall that when she first ran she said she was only interested in serving a single term. Power corrupts.
I doubt there's any point in time when "Trump has learned his lesson" has been or will be true.
Conservatives have to pretend that they're not shitty people, so they'll find all sorts of fun ways of rationalizing what they do, just like Collins back then.