President Trump said his trade adviser, Peter Navarro, should not have gone forward with an opinion piece trashing Dr. Anthony Fauci.
Navarro wrote a USA Today op-ed published on Tuesday that argued the nation’s leading expert on infectious diseases “has been wrong about everything I have interacted with him on.” The White House immediately distanced itself from Navarro’s piece and said the article didn’t go through the normal clearance process.
“We are all on the same team, including Dr. Fauci. I have a very good relationship with Dr. Fauci,” Trump told reporters Wednesday. “Everybody’s working on the same line, and we are doing very well.”
“He made a statement representing himself. He shouldn’t be doing that,” Trump said about Navarro’s opinion piece. “No, I have a very good relationship with Anthony.”
Still, there has been a growing rift between the White House and Fauci, who is the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and a key member of the White House coronavirus task force.
A statement attributed to an unnamed White House official was circulated in recent days among the media that included a list of examples of how Fauci “has been wrong on things.” Fauci, who has led the NIAID since 1984, also recently revealed that he hasn’t briefed Trump on the pandemic in more than two months.
The op-ed by Navarro is likely to further increase speculation about Fauci’s place in the Trump administration, although the 78-year-old immunologist stressed he has no plans to resign from his role.
“No. I think the problem is too important for me to get into those kinds of thoughts and discussions. I just want to do my job. I’m really good at it. I think I can contribute. And I’m going to keep doing it,” Fauci told the Atlantic.
Alyssa Farah, the White House director of strategic communications, tweeted a statement on Wednesday reiterating the White House’s position on Navarro’s op-ed.
“The Peter Navarro op-ed didn’t go through normal White House clearance processes and is the opinion of Peter alone. [Trump] values the expertise of the medical professionals advising his Administration,” she said.
Fauci was asked during an interview on Tuesday about who the public should be listening to and trusting given the bevy of misinformation and mixed messaging. Fauci said people should be putting their trust in health experts.
“For the most part, you can trust respected medical authorities. I believe I’m one of them, so I think you can trust me,” he said. “But I would stick with respected medical authorities who have a track record of telling the truth, who have a track record of giving information and policy and recommendations based on scientific evidence and good data.”
