Donald Trump may have proven himself a bumbling idiot on matters of policy, but when it comes to launching counterattacks, the president tends to land on mantras that stick. He successfully won the presidency by turning the country against 16 better qualified G.O.P. candidates and “Crooked” Hillary Clinton, and has continually labeled Robert Mueller’s investigation a “witch hunt”—a cry his supporters have taken up with glee. Though his outbursts may alienate some Americans, they regularly invigorate Trump’s “base,” which could be why, faced with an uncertain agenda and pathetic approval ratings, the president has returned to what he knows best: obsessing over his hypothetical opponents.

Those close to the president tell Politico that his new favorite pastime is sizing up his potential 2020 Democratic rivals—“He’s always asking people, ‘Who do you think is going to run against me?’” said one Republican familiar with the president’s venting sessions. Trump’s hit list includes most of the plausible Democratic candidates so far, including progressive standard-bearer Bernie Sanders. Though the Vermont senator recently beat Trump in a head-to-head poll by nine points, Trump reportedly argued that the 76-year-old “wouldn’t have the energy” to run another national campaign. (Trump will turn 74 during the 2020 race.) And Sanders is far from his only target, the Republican said:

Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, the woman he has nicknamed “Pocahontas,” would be “easy to beat,” he said. New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker probably wouldn’t end up running, Trump mused. When someone in the room brought up California Sen. Kamala Harris, the president seemed not to have her on his radar yet.

He reportedly skipped over would-be candidates such as Joe Biden and Kirsten Gillibrand. (A former White House official called the latter “easy to destroy . . . if you’re the president, or the R.N.C., you’re more worried about someone who looks like Biden.”) And while it’s true that the Democratic pool is noticeably thin on high-profile talent—to the point that Oprah Winfrey’s viral Golden Globes speech caused many to consider her a viable candidate—handicapping the race two years early is hardly a worthwhile endeavor for the incumbent president.

Trump’s newfound focus on 2020 comes as he faces widespread disapproval: a recent Morning Consult poll found that 35 percent of voters gave his performance an “F,” while only 34 percent gave him either an “A” or a “B” grade. The White House, too, faces an uncertain path forward, with aides and advisers still struggling to hammer out a feasible legislative agenda for the new year. Amid the vacuum, Axios reports that Trump seems to be “backsliding” into his old, self-destructive habits, nursing petty grudges rather than turning his attention to DACA and the increasing possibility of a government shutdown. “What is the White House about right now?” asked a source close to Trump. “I don't know.”