The Republican president, seeking re-election in November, has been
increasingly critical of government health officials and their
guidance as a steady rise in infections threatens the easing of
shutdown restrictions across the country.
Trump retweeted to his 83 million followers the accusations of a
former game show host that "everyone is lying," including the
federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
"The most outrageous lies are the ones about Covid 19. Everyone is
lying. The CDC, Media, Democrats, our Doctors, not all but most,
that we are told to trust," Chuck Woolery wrote Sunday night without
citing evidence.
Last week, Trump said he thought CDC guidelines for schools
reopening were too tough, impractical and expensive.
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On Monday, Trump also retweeted an April post from Woolery's podcast
co-host that Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy
and Infectious Diseases, wants to require "an ID card to go
shopping." As the spread of the coronavirus accelerated months ago,
Fauci said it was possible the United States could in the future
issue a certification of immunity.
The White House did not respond to questions on whether the
president believed the CDC was lying.
Trump told reporters later at the White House: "I have a very good
relationship with Dr. Fauci."
"I find him to be a very nice person. I don't always agree with
him," Trump said.
Fauci on Monday ascribed the surge in coronavirus cases to the
country's failure to shut down completely, then a rush to reopen too
soon, and urged a commitment to guidelines to rub out the disease.
"All you needed to do was look at the films on TV of people in some
states who went from shutdown to complete throwing caution to the
wind - bars that were crowded, people without masks," Fauci said
during a Stanford University event.
Fauci said he was confident the United States would get a handle on
the virus "if we step back. You don't necessarily need to shut down
again, but pull back a bit, and then proceed in a very prudent way
of observing the guidelines, of going from step to step."
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TENSIONS FLARE
Tensions with Fauci have risen with the decline of Trump's
popularity in the polls over the president's handling of the
outbreak. Fauci said in a Financial Times interview last week he had
not briefed Trump in two months.
Fauci's emphasis on protections including physical distancing,
wearing masks, avoiding crowds and washing hands have put him at
odds with a president eager to get people back to work to boost the
economy.
The White House over the weekend distributed a list of statements
Fauci made early in the pandemic that turned out to be wrong as
understanding of the disease developed, according to media reports.
But the White House said that it only sent responses to dozens of
questions it had received from the Washington Post.
Health officials and the CDC have pleaded with the public to wear
masks to limit the spread of the virus, but the issue has become a
politically divisive issue in the United States unlike in many other
countries which have seen far lower rates of infection and death.
Trump wore a mask for the first time in public when he visited a
Washington D.C.-area military medical center on Saturday. He had
previously refused to wear a mask in public or ask Americans to wear
face coverings, saying it was a personal choice.
(Reporting by Lisa Lambert, Doina Chiacu and Jeff Mason; Additional
reporting by Steve Holland, Makini Brice and Jan Wolfe; Editing by
Scott Malone and Howard Goller)
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