Dr. Anthony Fauci will likely become former President Donald Trump’s new target in his upcoming rallies, with attacks against the famed immunologist already growing after a trove of his emails were published in recent days.
Trump’s base has a “visceral” reaction to Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases who now serves as President Joe Biden’s chief medical adviser on COVID-19, Jason Miller, a Trump senior advisor, told Axios.
“People see Anthony Fauci and they think of shuttered businesses, lost school,” Miller said.
Fauci was a key part of Trump’s White House COVID Task Force in the early days of the pandemic, but as the disease spread and deaths grew, the relationship between Trump and Fauci quickly started to crumble while they disagreed on the path forward, according to a USA Today timeline about them.
After months of disagreements, the White House last July released a long list of remarks Fauci had made at the beginning of the pandemic in an attempt to undermine his credibility. Also, The New York Times reported that month that Fauci and Trump had not had direct contact for over a month, and Trump directly attacked Fauci on Twitter.
Fauci has worked under both Democrat and Republican administrations since 1984, but on the day after Biden’s administration admitted he had a “liberating feeling” because he was no longer working under Trump.
