If Donald Trump retakes the presidency in 2024, the top infectious disease expert in the US has said he would resign.
Dr Anthony Fauci bluntly said no when CNN spokesman Jim Acosta asked him if he would stay on as the director of the National Institute of Allergies and Infectious Diseases in the event that voters gave Trump a second term as president.
Fauci, 81, has led the institute since 1984, serving under seven presidents. He said he was not confident in Trump's ability to lead the country through a public health emergency like the coronaviruses, and his administration's response to the crisis in early 2020 was less than optimal. If you look at the history of what response was during the administration, I think at best you could say it wasn't optimal, Fauci said. I just think history will speak for itself. Acosta asked Fauci if he would keep his job if Trump won a second term after losing to Joe Biden in the 2020 presidential election.
Fauci and Trump have a history of arguing each other. The former president and his fellow Republicans blamed Fauci for urging Americans to take various measures to protect themselves from spreading and contracting the disease, which had killed 1 million people nationwide as of Monday, including wearing masks and getting vaccine.
Trump was aggravated by Fauci's frequent television appearances, calling him not a great doctor but a great promoter. He attacked Fauci for being skeptical of the disputed theory that the deadly virus escaped from a laboratory in Wuhan, China.
Trump once said he was wrong about almost every issue and that he was wrong about Wuhan and the lab.
Fauci was critical of Trump when the former president s campaign took Fauci's words and said he couldn't imagine anyone doing more than federal officials in general and tried to make it look like he was speaking admiringly of Trump's handling of the coronaviruses.
"I have never publicly endorsed a political candidate," Fauci said at the time. The comments attributed to me with permission were taken out of context. Fauci said the US was out of the full blown epidemic phase of the coronaviruses crisis, though cases could still rise as variants and subvariants proliferate.