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Agence France-Presse

The White House on Monday said that talk of US President Donald Trump wanting to fire the government’s top medical specialist in the coronavirus crisis, Anthony Fauci, was “ridiculous”.
Rumours that Fauci could get the axe – as a vocal group of Trump’s right-wing supporters wants – accelerated on Sunday when the president retweeted a criticism of the doctor with the hashtag #FireFauci.
“This media chatter is ridiculous – President Trump is not firing Dr Fauci,” White House spokesman Hogan Gidley said in a statement.
“Dr Fauci has been and remains a trusted adviser to President Trump.”


Fauci is widely considered one of the most trusted faces in the Trump administration’s fight against the pandemic. As a long-time expert in similar health crises, Fauci is winning plaudits for his no-nonsense and apolitical interviews with the media.
However, his consistent push for strict social distancing and shutting down of much economic activity has sparked resistance from Republicans who believe the Covid-19 crisis is overblown and worry that the paralysed economy will hurt Trump’s re-election chances.
Conspiracy theories spread widely on social media suggest that Fauci is even a Democratic plant.
Where’s Fauci? America’s top disease expert absent from Trump’s briefing
Gidley said that the purpose of Trump’s retweet was simply to defend himself against “media attempts to maliciously push a falsehood” about the government’s alleged slow response to the pandemic.
“It was Democrats and the media who ignored coronavirus,” Gidley said. Trump, by contrast, took “bold decisive action to save American lives by cutting off travel from China and from Europe”.
Gidley did not directly explain the president’s decision to include the #FireFauci hashtag.


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Coronavirus pandemic

Coronavirus: talk of Donald Trump firing Dr Anthony Fauci ‘ridiculous’, White House says

Dr Anthony Fauci speaks as US President Donald Trump listens during a coronavirus press briefing at the White House in March. Photo: AFP

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(FILES) In this file photo taken on July 12, 2016 Dr. Tom Frieden, Director of the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), speaks about the Zika outbreak at the New America think tank in Washington, DC. - The United States has become "less safe" as a result of the White House's decision to sideline the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) a former director of the agency said April 13, 2020. Tom Frieden, who ran the high-profile agency under ex-president Barack Obama, added that the country would be "much better off" if its leadership had heeded the CDC's calls to action early on in the coronavirus pandemic. (Photo by SAUL LOEB / AFP)

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A healthcare worker takes a break outside the Maimonides Medical Centre in New York. Photo: Reuters

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US president retweeted criticism of top medical adviser on Sunday, fuelling chatter that he planned to oust the expert
Fauci has come under fire by Republicans over his consistent push for strict social distancing and shutting down of economic activity



US president retweeted criticism of top medical adviser on Sunday, fuelling chatter that he planned to oust the specialist.
