CNN
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President Donald Trump has terminated Dr. Anthony Fauci’s security services that were provided and paid for by the National Institutes of Health, a source familiar with the matter told CNN. It was removed Thursday evening.
Given that he continues to face constant threats due to his role with the public during the Covid-19 pandemic, Fauci has now hired his own private security that he will pay for himself, the source told CNN.
This comes as Trump continues his tour of retaliation against officials who previously served under him. He also removed the security information of former national security adviser John Bolton and former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.
“I think you know, when you work for the government… at some point your security services disappear, and you know, you can’t have them forever,” Trump said Friday in North Carolina, where he visited the damage caused by the storm.
Asked by CNN’s Betsy Klein if he would feel partially responsible if something happened to Fauci or Bolton, Trump said no.
“They all made a lot of money. They can also engage their own security. All the people you’re talking about can come out, I can give them a good number of very good security guards. They can engage their own security. They all made a lot of money. Fauci made a lot of money.
Since Monday, Trump has complained about how President Joe Biden preemptively pardoned Fauci – the former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases – as one of his last acts before leaving office .
“Even when individuals have done nothing wrong – and in fact did the right thing – and are ultimately exonerated, simply being investigated or prosecuted can irreparably damage their reputation and their finances,” Biden said in a statement at the time.
Fauci served in government for decades and was the nation’s top infectious disease expert for 38 years. Trump awarded presidential honors to Fauci and 51 others who served on the Operation Warp Speed task force during the Covid-19 pandemic, although Trump later claimed he did not didn’t know who gave them to him.
Fauci has been targeted by many on the far right.
After testifying at a contentious House hearing this summer on the government’s response to the pandemic, Fauci said he saw a direct link between the increase in death threats made against him and his family and public figures public links linking him to Covid-19 conspiracy theories.
“It’s a trend,” Fauci told CNN’s Kaitlan Collins on “The Source” in June, adding that when someone in the media or in Congress “stands up and publicly declares that I am responsible for the death of ‘X number of people’. because of politics or some crazy idea that I created the virus – it’s immediately possible, it’s like clockwork – death threats are increasing significantly.”
CNN’s Samantha Waldenberg contributed to this report.
This story has been updated with additional information.
