Paul LePage Endorses Donald Trump Just A Week After Trashing Him

Maine Gov. Paul LePage (R)  apparently didn't have the courage to stand up to Donald Trump. Days after pushing his fellow GOP governors to speak out against Trump, he's endorsed the Republican presidential frontrunner .

During a meeting of Republican governors last weekend, LePage said the real estate mogul would harm the party and urged those present to write an "open letter" to the American people distancing themselves from Trump, The New York Times reported . The plan, according to the Times, went nowhere.

But less than a week after his plea, LePage completely reversed his position and publicly endorsed Trump.

“I was Donald Trump before Donald Trump became popular, so I think I should support him since we’re one of the same cloth,” he told radio host Howie Carr on Friday .

LePage has tried to fashion himself as a tough-talking governor of sorts. In 2011, he ordered a mural in Maine's Department of Labor removed because he didn't like it and last month he blamed the state's heroin crisis on men with names like "D-Money, Smoothie, Shifty,"  who he claimed were selling the drugs in the state and impregnating white women. LePage later apologized for the comment. 

His endorsement of Trump came the same day as that of New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, who frequently criticized Trump when he was running against him.