Trump and public health official regularly clashed during height of Covid pandemic and he has talked about facing death threats. “You can’t have a security detail for the rest of your life because you work for government,” Trump told reporters, adding that Fauci “made a lot of money” and could hire his own security.
“I would not take responsibility,” Trump continued when asked how he would feel if Fauci faced any heightened risks. During his time working with the first Trump administration, Fauci and the president regularly clashed. The public health official often appeared exasperated at briefings and had to publicly push back against non-scientific claims from the Republican and his inner circle, like Trump’s insistence the malaria drug hydroxychloroquine was an effective treatment for coronavirus.
At the same time, the Trump campaign ran what Fauci said was an unauthorized campaign ad, where the doctor said his words were taken out of context to appear to unequivocally praise the president’s pandemic response. As early as 2020, Fauci said he began getting death threats and was the target of ire from Trump supporters.
He added there “was chatter on the internet, people talking to each other, threatening, saying, ‘Hey, we got to get rid of this guy. What are we going to do about him? He’s hurting the president’s chances.’ You know, that kind of right-wing craziness.”.
