President Donald Trump has exposed Dr.'s taxpayer-funded security details. Anthony Fauci terminated, less than a week after President Joe Biden granted him a preemptive pardon.
CNN reported on Friday about Trump's latest move to punish his political enemies.
Fauci — the former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases — has since hired a private security firm, the network said.
The longtime infectious disease expert has taken much of the blame for the unpopular lockdowns amid the Covid-19 pandemic, despite working under Trump at the time.
During his trip to Asheville, North Carolina on Friday, Trump touted the move.
“No, I think you know, when you work for the government, at some point your security detail comes off, and you know, you can't have them forever,” the president said.
'So I think it's very standard. If it was for anyone else, you wouldn't ask the question,” Trump added.
Fauci was among those who gave President Joe Biden a blanket pardon when he left office earlier this week, fearing Trump would seek legal retaliation.
President Donald Trump (left) has ordered Dr. Anthony Fauci ended what the National Institutes of Health was paid for
Trump has already retaliated against some critics — and former officials who did not wholeheartedly endorse him.
He terminated his former National Security Advisor John Bolton's Secret Service Protection and the State Department detail assigned to his former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo – with both threatened by Iran.
Bolton wrote a tell-all book about working under Trump – and published it months before the 2020 presidential election, which the Republican subsequently lost.
Pompeo flirted with running against Trump during the 2024 GOP primary, but decided to sit out the election cycle.
He endorsed Trump and even went on the campaign trail for him — but that didn't make up for comments he made at CPAC in 2023 encouraging Republicans not to follow “celebrity leaders” with “fragile egos who refuse to acknowledge reality.”
Pompeo was also critical of Trump's handling of classified documents amid special counsel Jack Smith's probe.
On the political right, Fauci has become the person to blame for Trump's poor Covid response.
Republicans have since gone after Fauci for his role in the National Institutes of Health Funding Coronavirus Research – as they have tried to tie US dollars to the Wuhan Institute of Virology – where some believe Covid leaked from.
DailyMail.com previously featured Dr. Anthony Fauci (left) captured coming home from training with members of his taxpayer-funded security detail (right)
Trump went along with his health advisers' guidance to impose lockdowns in the early weeks of the pandemic.
The president later reversed course and was skeptical of masking – holding large rallies ahead of the November 2020 election.
Trump's chaotic approach to handling the pandemic ultimately cost him reelection.
President Joe Biden kept Fauci in the same role when he took office in January 2021.
Fauci retired in December 2022, but has since kept a security detail – due to a number of death threats.
