President Donald Trump has terminated former National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Director Anthony Fauci’s government-funded security detail—a move that underscores ongoing tensions surrounding Fauci’s role in the COVID-19 pandemic and the challenges of holding him accountable.
While efforts to prosecute Fauci over the damage his policies allegedly inflicted on millions of Americans have been hindered—reportedly due to a pre-emptive pardon from President Joe Biden, which critics view as a cynical maneuver—Trump has managed to revoke Fauci’s security clearance. This action strips Fauci of a key layer of government protection, potentially making him more vulnerable, although his deep ties to the pharmaceutical industry may see his private security needs swiftly covered by powerful allies.
Trump defended the decision on Jan. 24 while speaking to reporters in North Carolina during a visit to assess damage from Hurricane Helene.
“When you work for government, at some point, your security detail comes off and you can’t have them forever,” Trump said. “So I think it’s very standard.”
“You can’t have a security detail for the rest of your life because you worked for government.”
Fauci, who led the agency from 1984 to 2022, has faced sustained criticism from Trump over his handling of the pandemic. The former president has accused Fauci of pushing policies that harmed the economy and delayed vaccine distribution.
“Based on their interviews, I felt it was time to speak up about Dr. Fauci and Dr. [Deborah] Birx, two self-promoters trying to reinvent history to cover for their bad instincts and faulty recommendations, which I fortunately almost always overturned,” Trump said in March 2021, referring to a CNN documentary.
“They had bad policy decisions that would have left our country open to China and others, closed to reopening our economy, and years away from an approved vaccine—putting millions of lives at risk.”
The Epoch Times has reached out to Fauci for comment via Georgetown University, where he is currently employed.
Fauci is not the only former government official to see their security detail revoked under Trump’s recent wave of decisions.
On Jan. 21, the president also terminated former national security adviser John Bolton’s Secret Service protection. Bolton expressed disappointment at the decision, highlighting that the Biden administration had previously extended his security in light of ongoing threats against his life.
“I am disappointed but not surprised that President Trump has decided to terminate the protection previously provided by the United States Secret Service,” Bolton wrote on X.
“Notwithstanding my criticisms of President Biden’s national-security policies, he nonetheless made the decision to extend that protection to me in 2021.
The Justice Department filed criminal charges against an Iranian Revolutionary Guard official in 2022 for attempting to hire a hit man to target me.
That threat remains today, as also demonstrated by the recent arrest of someone trying to arrange for President Trump’s own assassination. The American people can judge for themselves which president made the right call.”
Trump dismissed these concerns, stating that figures like Fauci and Bolton have profited significantly from their careers and can afford private security. John Bolton, the warmonger, is likely as deep as a deep stater can be and can also ask his sponsors to cover his security.
On Jan. 23, similar measures were taken against former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo who later became a backstabber… and former special envoy for Iran Brian Hook, with Trump reiterating his stance that lifetime security for former officials is impractical.
“When you have protection, you can’t have it for the rest of your life,” he told reporters in the Oval Office. “Do you want to have a large detail of people guarding people for the rest of their lives? I mean, there’s risks to everything.”
While Trump’s actions have drawn both praise and criticism, his supporters see the revocation of Fauci’s security detail as a symbolic victory in the pursuit of pandemic accountability—albeit a limited one, given the legal hurdles posed by the alleged Biden pardon. As DOGE gains momentum, now might be a time of growth for the private security industry market as those who ran up debt and undermined Americans now have to take care of their own security. Whereas the psychological damage caused to millions of Americans due to brutal lockdowns – and possible vaccine industries might be irreversible, those who orchestrated it are no longer protected by the Trump administration.
