President Donald Trump spoke Friday at a bill signing for recently passed criminal justice reform legislation, a rare bipartisan victory for his administration. | Win McNamee/Getty Images White House Trump pans Beto 2020 talk: 'I thought you were supposed to win before you run for president'

President Donald Trump jabbed at Rep. Beto O’Rourke on Friday, wondering aloud during an exchange with reporters why the Texas Democrat has been suggested as a potential 2020 presidential candidate even though he fell short in his Senate bid earlier this year.

“I thought you were supposed to win before you run for president,” Trump told reporters gathered in the Oval Office for a bill signing on Friday.


O’Rourke, a previously unheralded lawmaker whose district encompasses El Paso, Texas, garnered significant national media attention for his bid this past fall to unseat GOP Sen. Ted Cruz. O’Rourke broke records with eye-popping fundraising numbers but never polled ahead of Cruz and wound up losing by 2.6 percentage points.

Still, O’Rourke’s strong showing in ruby-red Texas and the nationwide following he developed have prompted talk that the Texas congressman could mount a 2020 campaign for the White House. Multiple “draft Beto” groups have formed across the nation to raise money and after initially panning talk that he would run, O’Rourke has more recently suggested that he is considering a White House bid.

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In early polling, O’Rourke has consistently polled near the top of potential 2020 candidates, placing third with 11 percent in a recent Des Moines Register/CNN/Mediacom poll of likely Iowa caucus-goers, with former Vice President Joe Biden and Sen. Bernie Sanders taking the first and second spots, respectively.

Trump spoke Friday at a bill signing for recently passed criminal justice reform legislation, a rare bipartisan victory for his administration. Cruz also spoke at the event, lauding the bill as “a great step in the correction of justice.”