The tension between the two men -- who are no longer speaking, CNN reported last week -- has grown publicly as they have responded to one another through interviews and statements.

Trump does not plan to dismiss Fauci, and probably couldn't directly fire him if he wanted to, White House officials have determined. He insisted on Monday that his relationship with the doctor remains strong.

"I have a very good relationship with Dr. Fauci, I've had for a long time," Trump said at the White House during a roundtable event honoring police officers. "I find him to be a very nice person. I don't always agree with him."

But recent moves by the White House to publicly diminish the nation's top infectious disease expert amounts to a significant escalation as it seeks to divert attention from the government's failure to contain the coronavirus and instead push Trump's call to reopen the country. That effort continued Monday morning, when the President retweeted a baseless claim by game show host Chuck Woolery that "everyone is lying" about the coronavirus -- including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

In a statement Saturday, a White House official told CNN that "several White House officials are concerned about the number of times Dr. Fauci has been wrong on things." The official went on to provide a lengthy list of examples, citing Fauci's comments early in the pandemic and linking to past interviews.

These bullet points, which resembled opposition research on a political opponent, included Fauci downplaying the virus early on and a quote from March when Fauci said, "People should not be walking around with masks," among other comments. Not included were previous statements from the surgeon general urging people not to buy masks or an acknowledgment of the President's own false claims and misstatements about the virus.

On Monday, the White House insisted it was not trying to discredit Fauci. Speaking during a midday briefing, press secretary Kayleigh McEnany said officials simply "provided a direct answer to what was a direct question" when they issued the list of Fauci's statements.

"There's no opposition research being dumped to reporters," she said, insisting later that Trump and Fauci have "always had a very good working relationship."

Asked about Trump's retweet slamming the CDC, McEnany said Trump was simply going after "rogue individuals."

"Overall the notion of the tweet was to point out the fact that when we use science, we have to use it in a way that is not political," she said.

Fauci did not return a request for comment by CNN. But he has at times openly disagreed with Trump in a series of recent newspaper and radio interviews.

In particular, a recent interview with the Financial Times in which Fauci disclosed that he has not briefed the President in weeks prompted the White House to distribute the list of Fauci statements, an aide familiar with the matter said. Among other things, Fauci disputed Trump's claim that "99%" of corona

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