Donald Trump Says He's 'Never Been a Big Fan' of Dr. Anthony Fauci After Physician Was Grilled Before Congress

President Donald Trump stated he has "never been a big fan" of Dr. Anthony Fauci after the former chief medical advisor invoked the Fifth Amendment more than 100 times during a Republican-led Senate hearing.

Led by Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) on Capitol Hill, the Senate committee questioned Dr. Fauci regarding pandemic responses, origins of COVID-19 and recently released personal journal entries.

Dr. Fauci declined to answer numerous questions, invoking his constitutional right under the Fifth Amendment over 100 times, following legal counsel's advice, despite having received a preemptive presidential pardon from former President Joe Biden in January 2025.

Speaking to reporters, Trump, who famously invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination more than 440 times during a 2022 deposition, noted that he watched the testimony and remarked, “Well look, I’ve never been a big fan of Fauci. Why he did that was very simple — his lawyer told him to.”

“I don’t know if he would’ve been better off not doing it. There were a lot of questions I guess he could’ve answered, and some maybe he didn’t feel comfortable in answering. But [his] lawyer told him to do that,” Trump added.

Trump, who awarded Dr. Fauci a Presidential Commendation on January 19, 2021, his last full day in office as president, criticized Dr. Fauci's pandemic management and his contrasting lockdown advice, while highlighting his own administration's rollout of Operation Warp Speed as a major success.

“Many more people died of Covid under the Biden Administration than under the Trump Administration. 'Operation Warp Speed' was a SPECTACULAR SUCCESS, in fact, many say, one of the most successful things ever done by an American President,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.

400,000 to 465,000 Americans died during the first 10 to 12 months of the outbreak, which occurred during Trump’s first term.

Approximately 713,000+ Americans died, accumulating over a longer multi-year period between January 20, 2021 and January 20, 2025.

Trump managed the initial emergence of the virus for roughly one year, whereas Biden served during roughly three and a half years of the ongoing pandemic, which allowed significantly more time for deaths to accumulate.

The deadliest single spikes — including the massive Delta and Omicron variant waves in 2021 and 2022 — occurred during the Biden administration, even after vaccines became publicly available.

During the pandemic, public health experts, journalists and political opponents heavily criticized Trump for making numerous statements about COVID-19 that were factually incorrect, misleading, or contradicted by his own administration's scientists, including Dr. Fauci.

Trump repeatedly claimed in early 2020 that the virus would "disappear" like a miracle and was fully under control, despite private audio recordings later revealing he deliberately chose to downplay it to prevent public panic.

He publicly promoted unverified medical treatments, such as hydroxychloroquine, long after clinical trials showed it was ineffective. He also famously speculated during a White House briefing about using disinfectants or sunlight inside the human body to treat the virus.

Trump frequently asserted that the United States had a lower mortality rate than almost any other country and argued that rising case numbers were purely a result of doing more testing, both of which were statistically inaccurate.

In multiple briefings and social media posts, he equated COVID-19 to the common seasonal flu, despite data showing COVID-19 was significantly more lethal and contagious.

Dr. Jack Resneck Jr., former President of the American Medical Association (AMA), noted Dr. Fauci has "protected patients, saved lives, and, through simple human actions like hugging the Dallas nurse who survived Ebola, destigmatized disease."

Dr. Resneck highlighted that over his long career, including during the HIV/AIDS, Ebola, and COVID-19 crises, Fauci provided guidance to leaders and directly informed the public.