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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.
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."
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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