In a tweet posted Monday morning, Trump said he would be giving a \"Big speech on Border Security and much else tonight.\"
Trump kicked off a flashpoint in El Paso during his State of the Union speech on Tuesday when he said, \"The border city of El Paso, Texas, used to have extremely high rates of violent crime -- one of the highest in the country -- and considered one of our nation's most dangerous cities. Now, with a powerful barrier in place, El Paso is one of our safest cities.\"
While El Paso does now have a wall in some locations, its crime rate had already dropped substantially in the years prior to its construction in 2008, according to FBI's database provided by the El Paso Police Department. There were 3,662 violent crimes in the city in 1985, which declined to 2,574 by 2007. It has remained stagnant since.
The competing rallies offer a hard-to-avoid preview of a possible 2020 presidential match-up between Trump, 72, and O'Rourke, 46, and comes as the Democratic presidential field continues to grow.
Before leaving for Texas earlier Monday, Trump took a jab at O’Rourke over their potential crowd sizes. The president said 75,000 people signed up to attend his El Paso rally, but lamented the indoor arena can only hold 8,000.
“We have a line that is very long already,” Trump said. “I understand our competitor has a line, too. But it’s tiny little line but of course they’ll make it sound like they had more people than we do.”
Once at the rally, the president claimed that thousands more people showed up for his rally than O’Rourke’s event.
“That may be the end of his presidential bid,” Trump said.
Over the weekend, Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren and Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar each formally entered the race for the White House.
![\"PHOTO:](\"http://a.abcnews.com/images/Politics/beto-orourke-file-ap-jef-190211_hpMain_4x3t_384.jpg\")
Kathy Willens/AP
PHOTO: Former Democratic Texas congressman Beto O'Rourke laughs during an interview with Oprah Winfrey for "Oprah's SuperSoul Conversations from Times Square," Feb. 5, 2019, in New York.
But despite the presidential speculation, it remains unclear whether O'Rourke will mount a run for the Democratic nomination in 2020. In an interview last week with Oprah Winfrey, O'Rourke said he will make a decision on a presidential run before the end of February.
\"The serious answer is really soon,” O'Rourke told Winfrey, “before the end of this month.\"
While he ultimately fell just over 200,000 votes short in his bid to unseat Cruz in 2018, O'Rourke garnered national attention for his unorthodox campaign that frequently live-streamed behind the scenes footage of the candidate and his penchant for offering his unfiltered thoughts on issues ranging from national anthem protests in the National Football League to the legalization of marijuana.
During his race against Cruz, Trump referred to O'Rourke as a \"total lightweight,\" and said he \"will never be allowed to turn Texas into Venezuela.\"
![\"PHOTO:](\"http://a.abcnews.com/images/Politics/trump-rally-1-ap-er-181104_hpEmbed_5_3x2_384.jpg\")
Evan Vucci/AP, FILE
PHOTO: President Donald Trump arrives to speak at a campaign rally in Macon, Ga., Nov. 4, 2018.
In an October 2018 interview with ABC News' Paula Faris, O'Rourke said he would not be responding to Trump's attacks.
\"The kind of bitterness and the name-calling and partisanship that has unfortunately defined so much of the national conversation, you can add more to it or you can stay focused on the future,\" O'Rourke said at the time.
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