President Donald Trump is praising China's recent consolidation of power, calling "president for life" a great idea.

CNN reports an audio recording of Trump's closed-door speech to Republican donors in Florida on Saturday included remarks about Chinese President Xi Jinping, who has extended his tenure indefinitely.

"He's now president for life. President for life. No, he's great," Trump said at the fundraiser. "And look, he was able to do that. I think it's great. Maybe we'll have to give that a shot some day."

It's unclear how serious Trump was about the U.S. embracing "president for life"; the Twenty-Second Amendment was ratified in 1951, instituting a two-term limit for the nation's highest office.

According to MarketWatch, the speech delivered inside the ballroom at Trump's Mar-A-Lago estate included jokes, but at least one Democratic lawmaker wasn't laughing.

"We have someone in the White House in the Oval Office who clearly has authoritarian tendencies," Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., told MSNBC on Sunday.

Trump has previously praised authoritarian leaders including Russia's Vladimir Putin, Turkey's Tayyip Erdogan and the Philippines' Rodrigo Dutarte.

CNN reports Trump also used the event to complain about his Democratic presidential opponent, Hillary Clinton, arguing his attorney general Jeff Sessions should investigate the former Secretary of State.

"I'm telling you, it's a rigged system folks," Trump said. "I've been saying that for a long time. It's a rigged system. And we don't have the right people in there yet. We have a lot of great people, but certain things, we don't have the right people."