House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) on Friday recounted that President Trump opened his first meeting with congressional leaders in January with a flat assertion that he, in fact, won the popular vote in the November presidential election.

"First thing he says to open the meeting: 'You know, I won the popular vote,' " Pelosi recalled on MSNBC's "Morning Joe."

Trump has often boasted about the size of his Electoral College victory over Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton Hillary Diane Rodham ClintonFox News poll: Biden ahead of Trump in Nevada, Pennsylvania and Ohio Trump, Biden court Black business owners in final election sprint The power of incumbency: How Trump is using the Oval Office to win reelection MORE in November, although Clinton ultimately won the popular vote by nearly 3 million ballots.

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The president has also said that he would have won the popular vote if millions of people had not voted illegally. There is no evidence, however, suggesting that millions of ballots were improperly cast, and voter fraud remains rare in the U.S.

"He said '3 to 5 million people voted illegally, you know this, it came out later,' " Pelosi said." "And I said, 'Well, that's just not true.' And he said, 'And I'm not even counting California.' "

Trump signed an executive order last month launching an investigation into widespread voter fraud in the 2016 presidential election. The order creates the "Presidential Commission on Election Integrity," which will probe the issue of voter fraud over the next year before issuing a report in 2018.