WASHINGTON — For President Donald Trump, the 2016 election is never far from his mind.

When he met with a group of sheriffs from around the country in the White House on Tuesday, Trump saw not just lawmen but battleground states. In short order he was talking about his victories with officials from Pennsylvania and North Carolina. And when a sheriff from Minnesota introduced himself, the new president mused about what could have been in a state that hasn’t supported a Republican presidential candidate since Richard Nixon in 1972.

President Trump regards a gift from a group of sheriffs Tuesday. "People in uniform tend to like me," he told the sheriffs, referring to the election. "The numbers were staggering." Associted Press/Evan Vucci

“You know, we weren’t supposed to do very well in your state and we lost by 1 point,” Trump said. “I say if I went there one more visit, we would have won – we would have won Minnesota.”

More than two weeks into his presidency, the president is still fixated on the last fight. Many of his public comments include references to his election performance. At times, the comments appear to be light and boastful. In other moments, he’s awkwardly interjecting election talk at forums that are decidedly apolitical.

At the U.S. Central Command in Florida on Monday, the new commander in chief opened his remarks by telling a group of military officials and troops, “We had a wonderful election, didn’t we? And I saw those numbers and you like me and I like you.”

After a wide-ranging meeting with Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, on Tuesday, the congressman said they also talked about the size of Trump’s victory in Utah “for a moment.” “I said, ‘Yeah, you did well in Utah, Mr. President,”‘ Chaffetz said.

Trump won the Electoral College vote by a comfortable margin but lost the popular vote by nearly 2.9 million votes to Democrat Hillary Clinton, metrics that continue to come up in conversations at the start of his administration.

In his first meeting with Republican and Democratic congressional leaders, Trump asserted that between 3 million and 5 million illegal votes were cast in the election, despite a lack of evidence of widespread voter fraud.

For Trump, the campaign talk may be an easy ice-breaker, or a habit of a relentless self-promoter. Either way, what’s clear is the new president is eager to get a daily dose of validation. On Tuesday he told the sheriffs, “People in uniform tend to like me,” the president said. “The numbers were staggering.”

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