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Why longtime Trump ally and former Republican Gov. Paul LePage is aiming for a political comeback
LEWISTON, MAINE – EXCLUSIVE – Former two-term Gov. Paul LePage of Maine says President Donald Trump is a major reason why he’s coming out of political retirement at age 76 – and he’s eyeing a campaign comeback.
«I never, ever had any aspirations to go to Washington until now,» LePage said this week in his first national interview after launching his bid for the House in Maine’s Second Congressional District, which is a top swing seat the GOP aims to flip in the 2026 midterm elections.
The contest will likely be one of the most closely watched House races in the country next year as the Republicans aim to hold their fragile majority in the chamber.
«Donald Trump, I think, is doing what is necessary in addressing the debt this country is facing. And I think that’s a big, big thing for me,» LePage said as he was interviewed in the Maine city where he was born and raised.
HOUSE REPUBLICAN CAMPAIGN CHAIR SPELLS OUT HIS PLAYBOOK TO HOLD THE CONGRESSIONAL MAJORITY
Former Republican Gov. Paul LePage, who is running for the House in 2026 in Maine’s 2nd Congressional District, speaks with Fox News Digital in Lewiston, Maine, on May 7, 2025, in his first interview after announcing his candidacy. (Fox News – Paul Steinhauser)
LePage highlighted, «I have a friend in the White House right now. I know President Trump. I think I can have an audience of President Trump. I know several of his secretaries very well. And so I think this is a good time. It’s a good time for me to go help.»
LePage – the brash and blunt politician who won over blue-collar workers struggling with economic woes, which helped the Republican businessman win election and re-election in the blue-leaning state – was one of the first major GOP elected officials to endorse Trump when the president first ran for the White House nearly a decade ago.
«I was Donald Trump before Donald Trump became popular,» LePage joked at the time, in a line that’s since become famous.
The conservative governor, who grabbed national attention with controversial comments made during his tenure, briefly moved with his wife, Ann, to Florida after finishing his second term in 2019.
«I am done with politics. I have done my eight years. It’s time for somebody else,» he said at the time.
CONGRESSIONAL DEMOCRATS TARGETING THESE HOUSE REPUBLICANS IN 2026 MIDTERM BATTLE
But LePage re-established residency in Maine five years ago and challenged his successor as governor, Democratic Gov. Janet Mills, in the 2022 election.
LePage ended up losing his bid for a third term by 13 points to Mills, but he did carry the 2nd Congressional District in that race.
Moderate Democratic Rep. Jared Golden, a U.S. Marine veteran who deployed to the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and who often bucks his own party in Congress, has held the seat since first winning it in 2018.
Rep. Jared Golden, D-Maine, at a news conference in the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday, March 6, 2024, has represented Maine’s 2nd Congressional District since first winning the seat in 2018. (Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc. via Getty Images)
But Golden won re-election by a razor-thin margin last year in the district, which is the second-most rural in the U.S. and the largest east of the Mississippi River.
And Trump, who carried the district in the 2016, 2020 and 2024 presidential elections by nine, seven and 10 points, earned an electoral vote each time, as Maine and Nebraska, are the only two states in the union to allocate their electoral votes partially by congressional district.
MAINE’S GOLDEN TAKES AIM AT FELLOW DEMOCRATS OVER POLICY
Golden, in a statement after LePage announced his candidacy, said, «I thought Paul was doing his best work in retirement.»
But the 42-year-old Golden has yet to announce whether he’ll seek re-election next year or instead run for either the state’s Senate seat or the open governor’s office.
In his Fox News interview, LePage reiterated that the nation’s debt is a top motivation for him to return to politics. As of May 8, the national debt was $36,212,886,111,158.26, according to Fox News’ National Debt Tracker.
«It’s the spending and the debt that this country has, and I’m worried about my grandchildren, great-grandchildren. And I think we have a president now that’s really willing to tackle it, and I’m willing to help,» he said.
But LePage added that «the other thing that is really big is what’s happening in our country with the woke environment. I think I want to be there to help clean that up if we can. Having boys play in girls’ sports is really sad.»
He also highlighted his Tuesday meeting—part of a three-day swing through the congressional district—with Maine student Cassidy Carlisle, whom he described as «the courageous young woman fighting unfair male competition in girls’ sports.»
Maine’s 2nd Congressional District shares a long border with Canada.
When asked if he’ll be spotlighting border security and immigration as major issues in his campaign, Lepage said, «Big time.»
But the controversial tariffs the president placed on nations across the globe last month has strained relations with Canada.
Former Maine Gov. Paul LePage, who’s running a Republican campaign for Congress in 2026, speaks to a voter at a gun shop and indoor firing range, on May 7, 2025, in Poland, Maine. (Fox News – Paul Steinhauser)
«I’m all for the tariffs,» LePage said. «The tariffs will fix our international trade and lower taxes.»
LePage acknowledged: «Is it going to hurt in the short term? Yeah, it’s going to hurt a little bit in the short term, but I think it’s necessary.»
And he predicted that «the tariffs are going to be a short-term problem. I think they’re going to settle out.»
LePage spoke with Fox News at Lewiston’s Franco Center, a performing arts center and historic site of Franco-American culture located in a former Gothic church built in 1907 for French Canadian immigrants in Maine, which is located alongside the city’s historical mills and canals.
Former Maine Gov. Paul LePage, who’s running a 2026 Republican campaign for Congress, tours the Franco Center, a performing arts center and historic site of Franco-American culture located in a former Gothic church in the city of Lewiston, on May 7, 2025. Lepage was baptized as a child in the church. (Fox News – Paul Steinhauser)
The former governor, who survived a troubling and often brutal upbringing, gave Fox News a tour of the many dwellings within blocks of the Franco Center, where he spent his childhood.
The eldest son of 18 children, LePage grew up speaking French in an impoverished home with an alcoholic and abusive father who was a mill worker.
At age 11, he ran away from home after his father beat him and broke his nose. He lived on the streets of Lewiston and often crashed on friends’ couches for a couple of years before earning a living shining shoes, washing dishes at a restaurant, and haling boxes for a local truck driver.
«I had a very, very, rough upbringing as a youth. We were in welfare, we were in poverty,» he said.
Former Maine Gov. Paul LePage points in the location of a building where he lived during his childhood, in Lewiston, Maine, on May 7, 2025. (Fox News – Paul Steinhauser)
LePage, speaking in the church where he was baptized and sought refuge during his family troubles, told Fox News, «It feels good coming in this building. This was a special building. A couple of nuns and priests were really helpful in my upbringing.»
He went on to graduate from high school, and with financial help from friends, attended and graduated from college.
He later enjoyed success as a businessman, including greatly expanding Marden’s Surplus and Salvage, a Maine-based discount store chain.
Years later, he ventured into politics, winning election to the Waterville city council and later serving as the city’s mayor before winning statewide office in 2010.
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The former governor says his rough childhood has influenced his political life in a way that not many other politicians can understand.
And he lamented, «Unfortunately, the mentality in the current society is not to help people get out of poverty, but it’s to keep them in poverty.»
«I want to help get them out of poverty,» he said. «I think there are so many programs that we can institute that will elevate people in poverty, rather than keep them.»
Politics,Elections,Donald Trump,Governors,Congress,House Of Representatives,Maine,Republicans
Es el cuarto invierno de la invasión a gran escala. Y es muy difícil. Los misiles y drones rusos destruyen deliberadamente la infraestructura energética de la cual depende la supervivencia de la población civil. En enero y febrero, la temperatura desciende hasta menos veinticinco grados centígrados. Las ciudades ucranianas literalmente se congelan. Millones de personas tienen acceso limitado, o no tienen acceso en absoluto, a la calefacción, el agua y la electricidad.
Recuerdo que en 2022, cuando los rusos empezaron por primera vez a golpear la infraestructura, apareció en las redes una foto de una maestra de Kyiv. Está con un abrigo rojo, un gorro caliente, en cuclillas junto a un poste metálico sobre el que puso su computador, justo en la calle, cerca de una tienda donde funciona un generador y hay señal de internet. Y allí, en pleno frío, les da una clase a los niños. Y pensé que los rusos habían venido a quitarnos todo: nuestra tierra, nuestra libertad, nuestro futuro, la educación de nuestros hijos. Pero esa maestra de Kyiv decidió no entregarles nada. Y hasta una cosa tan sencilla como darles clase a los niños se convirtió en un acto de resistencia.
Sé por experiencia propia que, cuando no puedes confiar en el sistema internacional de paz y seguridad, siempre puedes confiar en las personas. Estamos acostumbrados a pensar en categorías de Estados y organizaciones intergubernamentales, pero la gente común tiene mucha más fuerza de la que ella misma imagina.
Hace cuatro años estaba en Kyiv cuando las tropas rusas intentaban cercarla. En aquel momento, nadie creía que pudiéramos resistir una amenaza militar tan poderosa. Recibíamos cada mañana como una victoria, porque habíamos logrado aguantar una noche más. Recuerdo cómo las organizaciones humanitarias internacionales evacuaban a su personal. Pero la gente común se quedó y empezó a resistir. Las personas comunes empezaron a hacer cosas extraordinarias.
Una de esas personas era mi amiga Victoria Amelina, la escritora ucraniana. En los primeros días de la invasión a gran escala, interrumpió un viaje y regresó a Ucrania. Muy pronto se incorporó al trabajo de documentación de crímenes de guerra. Y además hacía muchas cosas en paralelo. Recuerdo que le decía: haces demasiado y ya estás al borde del agotamiento: escribes un libro, documentas crímenes de guerra, vas a misiones de campo, haces trabajo voluntario. ¿Cómo puedes asumir más proyectos? Pero ella respondía que tenía una sensación persistente de no estar haciendo lo suficiente. Y que no sabía cuánto tiempo le quedaba a ella y, al final, a todos nosotros.
Un mes después de esa conversación, un misil ruso impactó un restaurante en Kramatorsk. En ese momento Vika estaba allí acompañando al Donbas a un grupo de colombianos que promueven la campaña de solidaridad ¡Aguanta Ucrania!. Sufrió una herida grave y cayó en coma. Tal vez suene absurdo, pero le escribía mensajes todos los días. Estaba convencida de que despertaría y leería todo. Y aun cuando una amiga común, que estaba a su lado en cuidados intensivos, me dijo que no solo debía prepararme, sino aceptar lo inevitable, respondí que, aun así, no perdía la esperanza.
No hace mucho revisé por primera vez esa última conversación que Vika nunca llegó a leer. Y esto es lo que quiero decirles.
Primero. Durante tres siglos, los ucranianos vivieron a la sombra del imperio ruso. Por eso entramos en esta guerra como una sociedad sin contexto. Nuestra historia no fue escrita por nosotros. Somos un país con una literatura clásica sin traducir. Las personas en otros continentes sabían de nuestra parte del mundo solo que aquí estaba Rusia. Un imperio no es solo la posesión de tierras, recursos y personas. Es la posesión del conocimiento, es decir, el derecho a nombrar las cosas.
Segundo. Putin afirma abiertamente que no existe la nación ucraniana, así como tampoco existen la lengua o la cultura ucranianas. Desde hace doce años documentamos cómo esas palabras se convierten en una práctica terrible en los territorios ocupados. Los rusos eliminan físicamente a las personas activas en las comunidades, prohíben la lengua ucraniana, saquean el patrimonio cultural ucraniano y educan a los niños ucranianos con manuales rusos en los que Ucrania no existe como Estado.
Y por último. Esta guerra tiene una dimensión de valores. No es una guerra entre dos países, sino entre dos sistemas: el autoritarismo y la democracia. Putin busca demostrar que un país con poder de veto en la ONU y armas nucleares puede permitirse todo lo que quiera. Incluso privar a toda una nación de su identidad y su libertad. Y la libertad, para los ucranianos, no es solo un valor de autoexpresión, es un valor de supervivencia. No habríamos sobrevivido ni surgido como nación si no hubiéramos aspirado obstinadamente a la libertad durante todos estos siglos.
Por eso, pese a todo, hay personas que enseñan a los niños ucranianos. Hay personas que escriben libros ucranianos. Hay personas que preservan su memoria.
Sembramos. Sembramos semillas. Sembramos incluso en invierno, cuando todo está congelado. Sembramos aquello que no teme al frío. Sembramos como un acto de fe, porque sabemos que la primavera llegará inevitablemente y todo lo que sembremos brotará. Y sí, es un trabajo a largo plazo. Pero quien piensa en el largo plazo, gana.
Cuando releía aquella conversación que Vika nunca alcanzó a leer, recordaba todo lo importante que logró hacer en su corta vida; pensaba en el amor que compartió generosamente conmigo, con su familia y con nuestras amigas; revisaba las fotos de su libro inconcluso sobre mujeres en la guerra, que fue publicado después de su muerte y traducido a varios idiomas. La vida humana es frágil. Pero aun así, puede estar llena de sentidos eternos.
Ahora sé mucho sobre lo que es la esperanza. La esperanza no es la convicción de que todo saldrá bien. Es la profunda conciencia de que todos nuestros esfuerzos tienen sentido.
*Oleksandra Matviichuk, defensora de derechos humanos y presidenta del Centro para las Libertades Civiles, en 2022 recibió el Premio Nobel de Paz.
“Cartas de Ucrania” es un proyecto de la campaña de solidaridad latinoamericana ¡Aguanta Ucrania! en conjunto con PEN Ucrania, UkraineWorld e Instituto Ucraniano.
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Greenland’s rejection of President Donald Trump sending a U.S. military hospital ship has touched off a private-public healthcare debate amid ongoing diplomatic talks about Arctic security.
Greenland’s Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen on Sunday turned down Trump’s offer, and now Trump special envoy to Greenland, Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry, has weighed in.
«Shame on Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen!» Landry wrote in response to a Fox News report on Nielsen’s objection. «President Donald J. Trump and America care. After speaking to many Greenlanders about the day to day problems they face, one issue stood out — healthcare.»
Greenland has sought more self-governance from Denmark under the Self Government Act in 2009 to take more local authority under home rule, but Danish officials’ instant rejection of Trump’s offer is aligned with Greenland’s own rejection that came later Sunday.
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Greenland has rejected the Trump administration’s push to take over the Danish territory. (Thomas Traasdahl/Ritzau Scanpix / AFP via Getty Images; Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
«President Trump’s idea of sending an American hospital ship here to Greenland has been noted,» Nielsen wrote in a translated Facebook post. «But we have a public healthcare system where treatment is free for citizens.
«It is a deliberate choice.»
Greenland remains open to dialogue and cooperation with the U.S., with a caveat, according to Nielsen.
«But talk to us instead of just making more or less random outbursts on social media,» Nielsen said in his own public Facebook protestation.
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Louisiana GOP Gov. Jeff Landry speaks during a meeting with President Donald Trump last year. (Scott Olson/Getty Images)
Greenland’s «free for citizens» care is not sufficient, Landry argued in his Facebook response posted to his campaign’s page.
«Many villages and small towns lack basic services that Americans often take for granted,» Landry’s post continued. «Small settlements are without permanent doctors, diagnostic tools, or specialist care – forcing residents to travel great distances for vital treatments that should be available at home.»
The healthcare issue underlies the overreaching Trump hopes to annex Greenland to secure the strategic Arctic region from Russian and Chinese designs, calling it a vital issue for «national security» for both the U.S. and the NATO alliance.
«A healthy Greenland is vital for America’s national security,» Landry’s post concluded. «America is committed to defending Greenland, and that begins by ensuring its people are defended against basic illnesses and ailments.
«These missions matter because health is inseparable from security. America’s commitment to defending Greenland must begin with ensuring its people are healthy.»
The recent dust-up came after Denmark’s Joint Arctic Command evacuated a crew member who required urgent medical treatment from a U.S. submarine in Greenlandic waters, seven nautical miles outside of Greenland’s capital of Nuuk.
«Working with the fantastic Governor of Louisiana, Jeff Landry, we are going to send a great hospital boat to Greenland to take care of the many people who are sick, and not being taken care of there,» Trump wrote Saturday night on Truth Social. «It’s on the way!!!»
That post sparked objection from both Danish Defense Minister Troels Lund Poulsen and Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen on Sunday.
«The Greenlandic population receives the healthcare it needs,» Poulsen told Danish broadcaster DR, according to Reuters. «They receive it either in Greenland, or, if they require specialized treatment, they receive it in Denmark.
VANCE: US SHOULD GET ‘SOME BENEFIT’ FROM GREENLAND IF IT’S GOING TO BE ‘ON THE HOOK’ FOR PROTECTING TERRITORY
«So it’s not as if there’s a need for a special healthcare initiative in Greenland.»
Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen is rejecting President Donald Trump’s offer to send a U.S. military hospital ship to Greenland, suggesting Denmark’s public healthcare system is sufficient. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images; Kirsty Wigglesworth – WPA Pool/Getty Images)
Frederiksen spun the Trump offer into a political debate on public healthcare.
«Am happy to live in a country where there is free and equal access to health for all,» Frederiksen wrote in a translated post, sharing a Democrat attack point on Trump’s Republican Party’s struggles to reform what Trump has rebuked as a «failure» of Obamacare. «Where it’s not insurances and wealth that determine whether you get proper treatment. You have the same approach in Greenland.»
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The U.S. Navy has two hospital ships, the Mercy and the Comfort. Both were last docked in Alabama for repairs, according to Reuters.
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North Korean leader Kim Jong Un was re-elected as general secretary of the ruling Workers’ Party of Korea, according to a press release from the country’s state-run media.
The decision was announced on Monday by the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), which said the party formally adopted the measure on Feb. 22 during its Ninth Congress.
KCNA described the move as reflecting the «unanimous desire» of party members, the military and the public, praising Kim as the «centre of unity and leadership» and crediting him with strengthening the country’s nuclear deterrence and advancing economic and military development.
The lengthy statement highlighted the country’s achievements over the past five years, including improvements to national defense capabilities and economic planning.
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In this photo provided by the North Korean government, leader Kim Jong Un claps after being re-elected to the top post of the ruling Workers’ Party during its congress in Pyongyang on Feb. 22, 2026. (Korean Central News Agency/Korea News Service via AP)
It also reaffirmed Kim’s role as the guiding figure in the country’s «socialist construction.»
Kim, who has been in power since 2011, has served as general secretary of the Workers’ Party since 2021, when he formally assumed the title previously held by his late father, Kim Jong Il.
An analysis by the American Enterprise Institute (AEI) suggests North Korea could use the conclusion of the Ninth Party Congress to unveil new strategic weapons and highlight progress under its 2021–2025 military modernization plan.
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In this photo provided by the North Korean government, leader Kim Jong Un attends the ruling Workers’ Party Congress in Pyongyang on Feb. 22, 2026. (Korean Central News Agency/Korea News Service via AP)
The report notes Pyongyang may showcase advances in intercontinental ballistic missiles, submarine-launched ballistic missiles and hypersonic glide vehicles as it seeks to improve the survivability and accuracy of its nuclear capabilities.
AEI assessed that Kim is also likely to outline modernization goals for the 2026–2030 period, potentially emphasizing second-strike capabilities, faster launch readiness and more diverse delivery systems.
NORTH KOREA FIRES MISSILE AS US, SOUTH KOREA BEGIN THEIR 1ST JOINT MILITARY EXERCISE OF TRUMP’S 2ND TERM
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Beyond military issues, the analysis says Kim may frame the current five-year economic plan as a success, pointing to increased trade with Russia and China and efforts under his «20×10 Regional Development Policy» to reduce rural-urban disparities.
north korea,kim jong un,world
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