During a press conference on Thursday, President Trump addressed inquiries regarding his recent decision to revoke U.S. Secret Service protection for Fauci. Trump stated that Fauci, who reportedly earned $5 million from his memoir, is now financially capable of securing his own protection.
“When you serve in government, there comes a time when your security detail is discontinued. It is not a permanent arrangement, so I believe this is quite standard,” Trump remarked. He further asserted that it is “reasonable” to question whether Dr. Fauci merits Secret Service protection more than three years after his departure from the White House under Biden’s administration.
“Individuals in government do not retain security details indefinitely. We have also reduced protection for others. It is not feasible to have a security detail for life simply because you worked for the government,” he elaborated. When asked if he would feel accountable if anything were to happen to Dr. Fauci or John Bolton, who also lost his Secret Service protection on the same day, Trump responded succinctly, “No.”
“They have all profited significantly. They can arrange for their own security as well,” he stated bluntly.
In the years that followed his tenure with Trump, Dr. Fauci was unreserved in expressing his views. In a segment of his memoir titled “He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not,” the renowned pandemic specialist offered a sardonic commentary on Trump’s sporadic public declarations of “affection” towards him, juxtaposed with the president’s private outbursts of anger.
“The president was furious, asserting that I could not continue to do this to him,” Dr. Fauci recounted, as reported by the New York Times. “He claimed to love me, yet insisted that the nation was in peril, and I was exacerbating the situation. He remarked that the stock market had only risen by 600 points following the favorable Phase 1 vaccine announcement, when it should have surged by 1,000 points, thus attributing a loss of ‘one trillion dollars’ to my actions.”
“I possess a fairly resilient disposition,” Dr. Fauci continued, “but being berated by the president of the United States, regardless of his professed affection, is not an enjoyable experience.”
The decision to withdraw Secret Service protection from certain political adversaries came shortly after Trump appointed Sean Curran, his long-time head of security, to oversee the troubled agency.
