As the pandemic rages, the Trump administration appears to be actively trying to discredit the disease expert who publicly disagreed with the President

The tension between the two men — who are no longer speaking, CNN reported last week — has grown publicly as they have responded to one another through interviews and statements. But recent moves by the White House to publicly diminish the nation’s top infectious disease expert amounts to a significant escalation as it seeks to divert attention from the government’s failure to contain the coronavirus and instead push Trump’s call to reopen the country. That effort continued Monday morning, when the President retweeted a baseless claim by game show host Chuck Woolery that “everyone is lying” about the coronavirus — including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

These bullet points, which resembled opposition research on a political opponent, included Fauci downplaying the virus early on and a quote from March when Fauci said, “People should not be walking around with masks,” among other comments. Not included were previous statements from the surgeon general urging people not to buy masks or an acknowledgment of the President’s own false claims and misstatements about the virus.

Fauci did not return a request for comment by CNN. But in a recent series of newspaper and radio interviews, Fauci, who has worked under six US presidents from both parties, has at times openly disagreed with Trump.

A person familiar with the situation acknowledged that Fauci has been appearing on television less frequently because Trump is annoyed by his public statements. Though Trump was already miffed by Fauci’s television appearances early on, the White House has sought to downplay tension between the two for several months. The press shop stopped approving Fauci’s television appearances, believing it would help alleviate the situation, though they continued to allow him to give interviews with print outlets.

Another person familiar has said the rare in-person meetings between Trump and Fauci are not awkward and don’t involve raised voices, but Trump has complained about Fauci privately. Sources say part of that irritation is over the “good press” Fauci has received. Trump’s irritation with Fauci has also, at times, been encouraged by Peter Navarro, Trump’s trade adviser who has repeatedly blamed Fauci for doubting the efficacy of hydroxychloroquine.

One senior administration official told CNN that some officials within the White House do not trust Fauci. According to the source, those officials think Fauci doesn’t have the best interest of the President, pointing to some of Fauci’s interviews. Other administration officials have told CNN that while they have disagreements with Fauci’s methods, they don’t doubt his motives, and that his only concern was public health.

In an interview on NBC’s “Meet the Press” Sunday, Adm. Brett Giroir, a member of the White House coronavirus task force, said there is “open discourse” within the team.

“I respect Dr. Fauci a lot, but Dr. Fauci is not 100% right and he also doesn’t necessarily — and he admits that — have the whole national interest in mind. He looks at it from a very narrow public health point of view,” Giroir said.

Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs at Health and Human Services Michael Caputo said Sunday there was no White House-versus-the scientists narrative.

“We have great faith in the capacity of all of our scientists and doctors on the coronavirus taskforce to impart necessary public health information. People like Admiral (Brett) Giroir, Surgeon General (Jerome) Adams and others are carrying these messages very effectively,” Caputo said in the statement, although he did not directly answer questions about Fauci.

Fauci is scheduled to be in the West Wing Monday for meetings.

Trump publicly criticizes Fauci

“Dr. Fauci is a nice man, but he’s made a lot of mistakes,” Trump said last week, undermining the public health expert whom Americans say in polls they trust more than the President.

In recent interviews, he openly questioned the advice he’d received from Fauci at the start of the outbreak.

“I think we are in a good place. I disagree with him,” Trump said in an interview Tuesday when questioned about Fauci’s assertion the US is still “knee-deep in the first wave” of the pandemic.

“We need people more than ever to speak truth to power, to be able to level with the American people about what we’re facing with this pandemic, how to get it under control, how to protect ourselves and our families,” Schiff continued. “That’s what Dr. Fauci has been trying to do and by sidelining him the President is once again interfering with an effective response to this pandemic.”

Kathleen Sebelius, who served as secretary of Health and Human Services under former President Barack Obama, told CNN efforts to discredit Fauci and other scientists are “potentially very, very dangerous” as the US and other countries work toward a coronavirus vaccine.

“I think people want to know from the scientists that the vaccine is safe, that it is effective, that it will not do more harm than good,” she told Blitzer on “The Situation Room.”

“And if the public scientists have been discredited, if the President says ‘don’t believe them, you can’t listen to them, they’re often wrong,’ we have then undermined a national vaccination campaign which is an essential step to bringing this horrible period to an end.”

This story has been updated with additional reporting and reaction.