“My attitude is, I wouldn't mind,” President Donald Trump said when asked whether he wanted to run against Beto O’Rourke. | Alex Wong/Getty Images 2020 Elections Running against Beto? Trump says he 'wouldn't mind'

President Donald Trump outlined the 2020 Democrats he’d most like to run against next year, saying he’d “love” to run against former Vice President Joe Biden or Sen. Bernie Sanders but that “we could dream about” running against former Texas Rep. Beto O’Rourke.

In an interview that aired Friday on Fox Business Network’s “Mornings with Maria,” the president told host Maria Bartiromo it seemed like the press has already “chosen” the former congressman who shook up the race last week when he jumped into the field of more than a dozen candidates.


“My attitude is, I wouldn't mind,” Trump said when asked whether he wanted to run against O’Rourke, whose narrow loss in the Texas Senate race against Ted Cruz last year propelled him into the national spotlight.

“I mean, I'd love to have Biden. I'd love to have Bernie, I'd love to have Beto. I mean, Beto seems to be the one the press has chosen. The press seems to have chosen Beto,” he said.

Trump ripped O’Rourke for his declaration earlier this year amid a fight over funding for Trump’s proposed border wall that he would “absolutely” tear down existing border wall in his hometown of El Paso.

“You have Beto, so you have Beto. And Beto comes out and he says, ‘Let's take down the wall.’ If you ever took down the wall, this country would be overrun,” Trump said, calling the border wall opposition of border state Democrats like O’Rourke and California Gov. Gavin Newsom purely political in nature.

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When asked whether the dynamic of the 2020 race would come down to “socialism versus capitalism,” Trump offered another suggestion.

“When I watch Beto, I say we could dream about that,” he said. “But whatever it is — no, I think it's competence. I think it's somebody — look. When I first ran, I was never a politician — I ran, I ran on a certain platform. I've done far more than I said I was going to do.”

While Beto has certainly captured a significant amount of media attention since announcing his presidential bid and brought in a record fundraising haul in the first 24 hours since announcing, polls have shown him near the middle of the pack of the Democratic field that’s more than a dozen strong.

Sanders has consistently polled at the top of the field along with Biden, who has yet to announce a run for president but is widely considered to throw his hat in the ring.