In an interview on “Fox News Sunday,” Trump also defended his relationship with Fauci, who has been in the spotlight in recent days after a series of comments by the president and White House measures raised questions about the Fauci’s position with the administration in the midst of the crisis.
“Dr. Fauci has made some mistakes, but I have a very good one, I spoke to him extensively yesterday, I have a very good relationship with Dr. Fauci,” Trump said. “He’s a little alarmist, that’s fine.”
Trump in the interview listed several “mistakes” he said Fauci has made in recent months, including his original stance on wearing masks.
At the beginning of the pandemic, Fauci had asked the public not to go out and buy the N95 masks because they were needed by health professionals. Now he has strongly advocated that people wear some form of facial covering, and last week urged governors and mayors to “be as forceful as possible” for people to wear facial covers.
During Sunday’s interview, Trump finally admitted that he himself had made some mistakes in responding to the coronavirus, but said that “he would eventually be right.”
When host Chris Wallace asked if Trump’s mistakes discredited him, the president said he did not believe it and stated that “he was probably more right than anyone.”
Last Wednesday, after spending more than a month without speaking, Trump had a phone conversation with Fauci, who was attacked by Trump’s top aides for days before the discussion.
Among the attacks was an opinion piece written last week by Peter Navarro, the top White House trade official, who wrecked Fauci. The White House also insisted last Monday that it was not compiling opposition investigations into Fauci, despite sending a compilation of times that it was “wrong” to journalists the previous weekend.
Speaking to The Atlantic last week, Fauci called the White House attacks on him “strange” and said they ultimately hurt Trump.
“I can’t understand in my wildest dreams why they would want to do that,” he said. “I think they now realize that that was not prudent, because it only reflects negatively on them.”
CNN’s Kevin Liptak and Jim Acosta contributed to this report.
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