President Donald Trump reportedly terminated former White House COVID-19 adviser Dr. Anthony Fauci’s security detail this week.
The National Institutes of Health paid the security detail, which was pulled Thursday evening, according to CNN. Fauci has since hired his own security personnel, for whom he will pay out of pocket.
The news comes after Trump signed an executive order Monday revoking security clearances for 51 former intelligence officials. The list targeted officials many Republicans believe illegally coordinated with former President Joe Biden to cover up information that would likely have damaged his chances of winning the 2020 election. Trump also reportedly revoked security clearances for former State Secretary Mike Pompeo and former national security adviser John Bolton, who has been subject to Iranian assassination plots, this week.
Trump said he would not feel responsible if anything happened to Fauci or Bolton as a result of their federal security clearances being axed, according to a White House press pool report.
“You know, they all made a lot of money,” the president said Friday. “They can hire their own security, too.”
Trump’s move to end federally paid security detail for Fauci came after the doctor faced sharp scrutiny over receiving a last-minute pardon from Biden on Monday.
On Inauguration Day, Biden issued the pardon for all crimes Fauci may have committed as director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases as Trump prepared to assume office.
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The pardon was shamed by Trump as being “disgraceful.” Other Fauci critics, who have long criticized the doctor for his stance on mandating the controversial COVID-19 vaccines, argued he committed major crimes as the nation’s leading public health official during the pandemic.
“If there was ever any doubt as to who bears responsibility for the COVID pandemic, Biden’s pardon of Fauci forever seals the deal. As Chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee I will not rest until the entire truth of the coverup is exposed,” Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) said in a post to X. “Fauci’s pardon will only serve as an accelerant to pierce the veil of deception. Ignominious! Anthony Fauci will go down in history as the first government scientist to be preemptively pardoned for a crime.”