Trump is apparently 'fixated' on Biden's polling numbers

President Trump's polling obsession doesn't appear to have diminished since 2016.

Trump is "fixated" on former Vice President Joe Biden as a potential 2020 threat, and over the past few weeks has "peppered aides on more than one occasion" about his poll numbers, Politico reported on Friday. It was previously reported that Trump sees Biden as the "most formidable" 2020 opponent, although publicly, Trump has shown no signs of nervousness, saying in October that a fight between the two "would not last long," per The Hill.

Biden has topped early Democratic primary polls, but Politico reports that Trump's advisers have assured him he has nothing to worry about and that the former vice president is essentially the Jeb Bush of 2020. Bush also led in some early 2016 Republican primary polls, earning 21 percent support in a March 2015 ABC News/Washington Post poll, which was conducted before Trump entered the race.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

Trump's advisers have also apparently made the argument that there's a good chance Biden won't make it through the Democratic primary, and even if he does, he'll be "pulled to the left" and wouldn't be tough to defeat in the general election. Biden is still mulling over a possible 2020 bid but has not yet announced his decision.