A newly released diary kept by former White House medical adviser Dr. Anthony Fauci reveals that the former president had some brutally candid words for Donald Trump and his eldest son during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.
According to Fauci’s journal, Obama privately described Trump as a “hopeless idiot” and a “pathologic liar,” while calling Donald Trump Jr. “a f—ing moron” during a phone call in late 2021.
The explosive comments surfaced after Fauci’s pandemic-era diary was released by Sen. Rand Paul, who has spent years trying to pin blame for the origins of COVID-19 on the former health official. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has openly boasted that he helped obtain the files, arguing they were government records rather than private journals.
The diary entry details a phone conversation in which Obama called Fauci to express support as the infectious disease expert was under relentless attack from MAGA politicians and conservative media.
At the time, Trump Jr. was selling merchandise emblazoned with the slogan “Fauci Kills Puppies,” capitalizing on viral claims that Fauci’s agency funded cruel experiments involving beagles.
Those accusations stemmed from research published in the journal LOS Neglected Tropical Diseases involving studies in Tunisia. The journal later issued a correction to the paper, but by then the story had become political ammunition, fueling a flood of online outrage and death threats against Fauci.
According to Fauci’s account, Obama was furious—not just with Trump and his allies, but also with Republicans who stayed silent while the attacks escalated.
After apologizing for his language, Obama reportedly said Trump Jr. was “a f—ing moron.”
Then he turned his attention to Trump himself.
Fauci wrote that Obama described the former president as “a hopeless idiot” and “a pathologic liar.”
The former president also reportedly expressed frustration that what he viewed as “moderate Republicans” had largely stayed silent while Fauci endured what Obama characterized as slanderous attacks.
The harassment against Fauci had become intense.
According to The Washington Post, Fauci’s office received roughly 3,600 phone calls in just 36 hours after false claims about puppy experiments spread online. The volume of threats and abusive messages became so overwhelming that his assistant reportedly stopped answering the office phones for two weeks.
Fauci remained one of the most polarizing public officials of the pandemic, drawing fierce criticism from Trump allies over his support for vaccines, mask recommendations, and other public health measures. Trump himself frequently clashed with Fauci as COVID-19 spread across the United States, often publicly contradicting his warnings about the virus.
Now the diary itself has become part of another political battle.
Paul continues to accuse Fauci of misleading Congress about the origins of COVID-19, allegations Fauci has repeatedly denied. Kennedy has defended releasing the diary, saying it documents one of the most consequential public health emergencies in American history and therefore belongs in the public record.
On Wednesday, Fauci appeared before the Senate Homeland Security Committee, where he invoked the Fifth Amendment more than 100 times during questioning about the pandemic and COVID-19’s origins.
In opening remarks, he blasted Paul’s years-long campaign against him.
“The only conclusion I can reach,” Fauci said, “is that the sole reason he is calling me before this committee is to get me to say something that could vindicate his repeated public pledges that I end up, in his words, ‘behind bars.'”
Whether the diary changes anyone’s opinion is another question. But it offers a rare glimpse behind the curtain, showing that while Obama chose diplomacy in public, behind closed doors he had no trouble saying exactly what he thought.
