On June 21, Maine Governor Paul LePage clashed yet again with the Federal Government, threatening to halt the states welfare program, which provides needed food to some 195,000 impoverished citizens in Maine alone. LePage demands greater control over what foods are prohibited to purchase with Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), the proposed restrictions being in addition to beer, wine, liquor, tobacco products, pet foods, vitamins and medicine, as well as any food that will be eaten in the store, (hot food) which are currently restricted from purchase with SNAP funds. The Department of Agriculture responded to LePage's threats by advocating that he focus on the many existing issues with the program, including "timeliness with processing applications, backlogs related to state-administered errors, and staffing shortages." LePage justified his reasons for toying with the lives of 195,000 Mainers in a fuming letter to The Department of Agriculture, in which he accuses the Obama Administration of being beholden to special interests.

This incident is only the latest in a series of controversies surrounding LePage, beginning with when he stated, ''And as your governor, you're gonna be seeing a lot of me on the front page saying Gov. LePage tells Obama to go to hell,'' and stated that the president ''hates white people.'' Things only got worse from there, when LePage refused to attend any Martin Luther King Day events, stating that he would not be ''held hostage'' by the NAACP, and ignored their attempts to meet with him, telling a reporter "they can kiss my butt." He discussed Maine's drug crisis by placing blame on outsiders, stating ''These are guys by the name D-Money, Smoothie, Shifty. These type of guys that come from Connecticut and New York. Incidentally, half the time they impregnate a young, white girl before they leave.'' LePage advocated the death penalty for those who sell drugs, ''What we ought to do is bring the guillotine back. We could have public executions and we could even have which hole it falls in.” LePage also sparked controversy when he removed a mural depicting the history of the Maine's labor movement from the lobby of the Maine Department of Labor offices, after receiving complaints that the mural was pro labor. LePage also renamed conference rooms which are named after historic labor leaders, such as Frances Perkins, the first woman Secretary of Labor in the history of the United States. LePage's spokesmen attempted to justify the removals by stating that the mural and names were ''not in keeping with the department's pro-business goals." LePage also attempted to allocate tax payer dollars to private religious schools, which was found to be unconstitutional, and called the IRS, ''the new Gestapo.'' He responded to the ensuing outrage by stating, "What I am trying to say is the Holocaust was a horrific crime against humanity and, frankly, I would never want to see that repeated. Maybe the IRS is not quite as bad... yet." Paul LePage does not take criticism lightly, when Senator Troy Jackson denounced LePage's claims that Democrats refused to work with him, LePage responded by stating that Senator Jackson "claims to be for the people but he’s the first one to give it to the people without providing Vaseline", and that Jackson "ought to go back into the woods and cut trees and let someone with a brain come down here and do some good work". He does not care for newspapers, stating that "Reading newspapers in the state of Maine is like paying somebody to tell you lies." LePage threatened to withhold $500,000 from Good Will-Hinckley, a charity group that runs charter schools, if they hired former Democratic House Speaker Mark Eves to be the head of the organization, blackmailing a nonprofit due to a personal grudge. LePage also promised to veto 'every' Democratic bill to reach his desk, regardless any potential benefits the bill may offer. Despite vetoing medicaid expansion 5 times, LePage does not seem to understand how it works, stating that Maine would not be eligible for complete reimbursement of MaineCare costs for residents without insurance, when in reality the state of Maine would be eligible for complete reimbursement. Unsurprisingly, LePage is a Trump supporter.

Throughout his two terms as Governor of Maine, Paul LePage has managed to alienate much of the black community with his disdain for the NAACP and his remarks about impregnating young white girls, the Jewish community with his casually offensive Gestapo comparison, and the Indian community with his stating that they were ''the worst ones'' to understand, and that they were “lovely people but you’ve got to have an interpreter.” LePage has faced widespread criticism from by Maine's community, from the Portland Press Herald to Stephen King, who expressed his thoughts on the Governor by tweeting, ''One must admit LePage has elevated assholery to a level far past the extraordinary and into a rarified sphere that might be termed divine.'' LePage's petty feuds with other politicians, and even the press itself, his fundamental misunderstanding of Medicaid, his vow to veto every bill sponsored by a Democrat, combined with his childish name-calling and his threats to pull funding from organizations that help thousands over personal disputes, prove LePage to be little more then a blathering hooligan unfit for any political office, much less the position of Governor. His arrogant, ill informed statements and actions brings humiliation to Maine, a state which should be valued for its beauty and tolerance, not for its idiot of a Governor.