Last updated on September 25th, 2023 at 02:07 pm
In private, Donald Trump is reportedly obsessed with talking about who his potential 2020 Democratic opponent will be.
According to Politico, Trump is “always asking people” who they think will face him in the presidential election over two years from now. The report notes that Trump brought up two possible candidates he might have to compete against in 2020: Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren.
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Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders — who had recently bested Trump in a poll that tested the two septuagenarians in a head-to-head match-up — wasn’t a serious threat and would be easy to beat, Trump told a Republican with close ties to the White House who was in the room.
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Sanders wasn’t the only potential presidential candidate that Trump, 71, brushed off as a non-threat. Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, the woman he has nicknamed “Pocahontas,†would be “easy to beat,†he said. New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker probably wouldn’t end up running, Trump mused. When someone in the room brought up California Sen. Kamala Harris, the president seemed not to have her on his radar yet.
Handicapping potential 2020 challengers — however premature the exercise is — has become a favorite pastime for the competitive president, who still regularly rehashes his shock win in the 2016 race.
“He’s always asking people, ‘Who do you think is going to run against me?’†said the Republican who heard the president’s assessment in December.
According to another report from The Hill, allies of the president feel that the potential Democratic nominees Trump should be worried about aren’t the names he frequently mentions. Instead, it’s former Vice President Joe Biden and Oprah Winfrey who should concern him most.
In any case, the Politico report confirms what we already knew about Trump: He is constantly obsessing over campaign-style politics instead of actually doing his job. He enjoys the game of politics but never had any interest in actually doing the hard work once the game is over.
On a deeper level, Trump’s obsession also seems to indicate that he is freaking out over the 2020 election, particularly as his approval ratings remain stuck in the 30s.
Sean Colarossi currently resides in Cleveland, Ohio. He earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in Journalism from the University of Massachusetts Amherst and was an organizing fellow for both of President Obama’s presidential campaigns. He also worked with Planned Parenthood as an Affordable Care Act Outreach Organizer in 2014, helping northeast Ohio residents obtain health insurance coverage.
