Americas self styled Trump before Trump Paul LePage threatens to cover

America’s self-styled “Trump before Trump” Paul LePage threatens to “cover” for a Democrat staffer.

A Republican gubernatorial candidate in Maine who once described himself as “Donald Trump before Donald Trump” threatened to “decorate” a Democratic staffer during a campaign event over the weekend, new video shows.

Paul LePage, who earned the title of America’s “craziest governor” from 2011 to 2019 while leading the state of Maine, is running for his old seat again in November.

The brash former governor has made headlines in the past with outrageous and racist remarks, such as infamously joking about the bombing of one of his state’s largest newspapers and claiming “guys by the names D-Money, Smoothie, Shifty” are coming to Maine to sell drugs and ‘pregnant a young white girl’.

Though LePage told reporters in 2019 that he was done with politics and “would retire and go to Florida,” LePage has reportedly returned to presenting a “milder” image to moderate voters in his home state to address

But those efforts were seemingly undermined by a video from the Daily Beast purporting to show LePage threatening someone who caught the ex-governor off-guard as he walked over a mud puddle at the outdoor event.

LePage seems startled by how close the person filming got, saying in the shot, “Six feet away or I’ll deck you.”

The ex-governor points to someone behind the camera with one hand and clutches a donut with the other.

“If you come into my space, you go under,” he adds.

Americas self styled Trump before Trump Paul LePage threatens to cover

Paul LePage is running for his old seat as governor of Maine after leading the state from 2011 to 2019

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He’s known for making bombastic comments, like joking about the attack on a newsroom and telling the NAACP to kiss my butt.

Three men in LePage’s campaign attire giggle as they surround the politician.

LePage says at the end of the recording, “Enough is enough. Two meters away.”

It’s not clear what happened before or after the video.

The person who made the recording is reportedly an employee of the Maryland Democratic Party.

Brent Littlefield, LePage’s top campaign adviser, declined to respond to ‘s request for more context, saying: “Paul LePage is not like most people, he was homeless as a child and had to live on the streets to get enormous Overcome opportunities to earn an advanced college degree, become a successful businessman, mayor and governor of Maine.’

The Maine GOP told : “In a world where we have just seen someone attempt to stab Lee Zeldin and Salman Rushdie was forced to fight for his life after being stabbed multiple times, it’s no surprise that Paul LePage was unhappy with this paid Democratic Party Staffer comes so sneakily so close.’

“Few Maine elected officials have faced as many threats of personal harm because of their political positions as Paul LePage. There are also few elected officials from Maine who grew up in an abusive home like Gov. LePage did. That means he faces a different personal threat than most,” said Jason Savage, executive director of the Maine Republican Party.

“There is a simple solution here: trackers should respect the privacy of candidates. Filming is one thing, but this encounter went beyond that.”

He is also the second governor to have endorsed Donald Trump's 2016 presidential campaign

He is also the second governor to have endorsed Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign

The Maine Democratic Party confirmed to that their associate was involved in the incident.

“Paul LePage was, is and always will be a bully. When he was governor, he often threatened people with violence and the power of his office — I’ve seen it firsthand,” Maine Democratic Party Chairman Drew Gattine said.

“This latest looming eruption just goes to show it’s the same as always. The people of Maine deserve better than Paul LePage and his hate and division.’

LePage is up against incumbent Maine Governor Janet Mills, a Democrat.

He rose to the governorship more than a decade ago on a wave of Tea Party support fueled by Republican backlash against Barack Obama.

Then LePage closely aligned himself with Donald Trump by becoming only the second governor to endorse him for the presidency during the 2016 Republican primary.

LePage is up against incumbent Maine Governor Janet Mills, a Democrat

LePage is up against incumbent Maine Governor Janet Mills, a Democrat

“I was Donald Trump before Donald Trump became popular. So I think I should support him because we’re made of the same stuff,” he said on The Howie Carr Show in February this year.

He also said that Trump’s opponents at the time, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz and Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, “killed the Republican Party brand.”

NBC reported in June that LePage is now in a “different era” of his politics.

“What he’s trying to do isn’t necessarily to change his politics, but to smooth out some of the rough edges,” political scientist Mark Brewer told the outlet.

Much like Trump, LePage recently expressed doubts about his state’s elections at a campaign halt in Mount Vernon on Aug. 8.

“I’ll say in Maine, I have a lot of faith in small towns — I’d say towns with fewer than 1,000 people — because the employees usually know everyone in town, so I have a lot of faith,” he said, according to the Courier-Gazette.

Referring to the state’s big and bluer cities, he added, “I have less confidence when you come to Bangor, Rockland, Lewiston, Portland, South Portland. These are areas where you have to be a little more careful. In the last presidential election, 163,000 people voted without ID.”