The White House is already tracking which Democrats could challenge President Trump in 2020 and Gov. Andrew Cuomo and Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand aren’t on the list, sources told The Post.
Trump’s chief strategist, Steve Bannon, asked consultants to scour the backgrounds of four outspoken Democrats — Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown, Connecticut Sen. Chris Murphy, Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper and Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban, two sources close to the administration said.
“The White House political department wants people to start looking into them,” said one source close to the White House. “Trump is obsessed with running for re-election.”
Both Murphy, a freshman senator who has lambasted Trump’s immigration orders, and Brown, a 10-year Senate vet who made Hillary Clinton’s VP short list, are seen as viable threats who can quickly raise money and build a network of supporters, the sources said.
Hickenlooper, who founded a brewery before becoming governor of the Western swing state, is seen as a less-combative rising star, the sources said.
But the White House’s “biggest fear” is that Cuban, a billionaire businessman, would run because he can appeal to Republicans and independents, the sources said.
“He’s not a typical candidate,” the second insider said. “He appeals to a lot of people the same way Trump did.”
“If you believe in the Trump revolution, you can believe a candidate like Mark Cuban could win an election,” the source added. “And Mark is the kind of guy who would drop half a billion dollars of his own money on the race.”
Cuban said in September that there was “no possible way” he would run for president, but that hasn’t stopped him from heckling Trump online and in public.
Last week, the mogul said he didn’t think Trump would last four weeks in the job.
A number of prominent Democrats didn’t make the cut on the preliminary enemies list.
The White House believes both Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren are “too old” to mount a serious campaign three years from now, sources said. Warren is 67 years old and Sanders is 75.
“Elizabeth Warren is 100 years old. No one thinks that she could or would run. She’s Hillary Clinton 2.0 but worse,” the second source said.
The president mocked Warren and Democrats in a meeting with 10 senators last week, saying, “Pocahontas is now the face of your party.”
Warren has claimed distant Native American ancestry, and Trump used the nickname to mock her during the campaign.
Trump’s political team is also counting out Cuomo and New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker, because they say they’ve been tainted by corruption probes.
Federal prosecutors charged former Cuomo aide Joe Percoco and seven others in a sprawling bribery and bid-rigging scheme in November. The governor could be called to testify in Percoco’s trial this spring.
Republican researchers have already compiled a hefty opposition file on Booker, the former Newark mayor who received $689,000 from his former law firm while they had contracts with Newark agencies.
“There’s a book on Booker, and we’ll start dropping oppo on him in his next re-election,” which occurs in 2020, the second source said. “If he does run, he’d be out in a matter of a couple months. He would not survive the scrutiny of a national campaign.”
Gillibrand, 50, has been raising her profile thanks to a series of “no” votes on Trump’s cabinet picks, but White House officials view her as “too young” and believe she lacks the network in the party to run a nationwide campaign, the sources said.