It’s no secret that Dr. Anthony Fauci and the former president are not exactly best friends. Since President Joe Biden was inaugurated in January, Fauci has not held back about what it was like to work for the Donald Trump administration as part of his White House Coronavirus Task Force.

Fauci told The New York Times that, because he was unafraid to disagree with Trump, whose information about the COVID-19 pandemic was not always accurate (via The Atlantic), he was viewed as “the skunk at the picnic.” He admitted that, while his wife urged him to think about resigning his position, he felt compelled to stay on for the good of the country.

“Even if I wasn’t very effective in changing everybody’s minds, the idea that they knew that nonsense could not be spouted without my pushing back on it, I felt was important,” he said. “I think in the big picture, I felt it would be better for the country and better for the cause for me to stay, as opposed to walk away.”

Trump thinks Fauci was 'so wrong'

So what does Trump think of Fauci? The former president said on the podcast The Truth with Lisa Boothe (via The Hill) that he “like[s] him personally” and thinks “he’s actually a nice guy,” but doesn’t think that Fauci’s science is sound. “He’s a great promoter,” said Trump. “He’s really a promoter more than anything else.”

Among the things Trump thinks Fauci got wrong are advising the public not to wear face masks early in the pandemic but to reserve them for healthcare workers — something other health experts were also advising — and pushing back on banning travel from China in the early days of the pandemic.

“Fauci has been so wrong,” said Trump. “So has [former White House Coronavirus Response Coordinator Deborah] Birx, they’ve been so wrong. And if I would’ve listened to them? And then they went to the other extreme, like the entire country should lock up. I didn’t go for that. And you know, it just wasn’t for me. I didn’t go for that.”

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