Donald Trump paid a backhanded compliment on Wednesday to the front-runner in the battle over the future of the Democratic Party.

The president tweeted faint praise for Rep. Keith Ellison, saying the Minnesota congressman 'predicted early that I would win!'

Ellison, one of two Muslim congressmen, said in the days following Trump's July 2015 campaign launch that Trump stood a reasonable chance of winning the Republican presidential nomination – and then the White House.

Donald Trump tweeted faint praise for Rep. Keith Ellison, a front-runner to lead the Democratic National Committee

Ellison, one of the two Muslim members of Congress, could put himself in a position to be the DNC's main foil against what Democrats see as Trump's anti-Muslim immigration policies

'Anybody from the Democratic side of the fence who thinks that – who is terrified of the possibility of President Trump – better vote, better get active, better get involved because this man has got some momentum, and we'd better be ready for the fact that he may be leading the Republican ticket,' he said on a Sunday morning broadcast of ABC's 'This Week.'

'I know you don't believe that,' responded host George Stephanopoulos.

ABC's footage shows Stephanopoulos and New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman laughing at the idea.

'Sorry to laugh,' Haberman says through a smile.

'You know, George, we had Jesse Ventura win the governorship in Minnesota. Nobody thought he was going to win. I'm telling you, stranger things have happened,' Ellison shot back.

Trump said Ellison 'predicted early that I would win!'

Ventura, a former professional wrestler, became the state's governor in 1998, upending a race that presaged Trump's victory 18 years later.

Ellison is currently the favorite to win the chairmanship of the Democratic National Committee in a recent survey of the party's members.

Democrats will vote in Atlanta this weekend to determine who will lead the DNC in the Trump era.

If Ellison should win, it would put him in a position to rail against Trump over what Democrats see as an anti-Muslim immigration platform.

Former Labor Secretary Tom Perez is also in the running, along with Pete Buttigieg, the mayor of South Bend, Indiana.