NEW YORK _ President Donald Trump claimed Monday that New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo recently called him and promised he won't launch a White House bid in 2020.
Trump, who has a history of making factually dubious assertions about what people tell him over the phone, referenced Cuomo during a campaign rally for GOP Rep. Claudia Tenney in upstate Utica.
"Now, he called me and he said 'I'll never run for president against you,' " Trump told the crowd. "But maybe he wants to."
Trump then pulled a 180 and urged Cuomo to run.
"Oh, please do it," he said. "Maybe he means it. But one thing we know, and they do say: anybody who runs against Trump suffers."
Reached by phone Monday evening, a spokeswoman for Cuomo declined to comment but said the governor's office would respond soon.
Trump has already made it clear he intends to run for a second term in 2020. Rumors have swirled that Cuomo is considering a Democratic run.
Trump visited upstate New York Monday to sign a military spending bill and throw his support behind Tenney's re-election campaign.
Cuomo issued a blistering statement ahead of Trump's trip to his home state.
"Despite being a native New Yorker, since you took office, you have attacked our health care, passed a tax law that punished New York in order to fund corporate tax cuts, ripped immigrant New Yorkers from their families, launched an assault on our environment, and undermined the basic values on which this state and this nation were built," Cuomo said.
"Perhaps you can use this trip to New York to help you remember what truly makes this state and this nation great."
