WASHINGTON — Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) released a new tranche of Dr. Anthony Fauci's personal diary entries on Wednesday, exposing what the senator calls "early-onset Trump derangement syndrome" from the man who served as the nation's top infectious disease official during the first Trump administration, according to reports from the Washington Examiner and Newsweek.
The 203-page package, which Paul says covers 2015 through 2019, reveals Fauci privately called for President Donald Trump's impeachment in January 2019, repeatedly disparaged the president in personal notes, and praised China's infectious disease research capabilities.
"Dr. Fauci wrote privately in January 2019 that President Donald Trump 'should be impeached,'" Newsweek reported Thursday, citing the diary entries released by the Republican senator from Kentucky.
The release marks the second batch of Fauci's private writings made public by Paul, who chairs the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. The first tranche, released in July, covered the pandemic era from December 2019 through December 2022 and showed Fauci had privately labeled Trump "an idiot," "out of control," and "a true embarrassment."
But it's the China praise that is raising new concerns.
According to the Washington Examiner, Fauci "thought highly of China, particularly its infectious disease research," while simultaneously expressing "immense disdain" for the president he served under. The timing is notable — these entries predate the COVID-19 pandemic that would eventually expose the dangerous nature of American dependence on Chinese scientific institutions.
"Early-onset Trump derangement syndrome" — Sen. Rand Paul's characterization of Fauci's diary entries.
Paul's office has made the documents available for public viewing on his official Senate website, part of what Newsweek described as "a broader investigation into Fauci's conduct." The senator has been a persistent critic of Fauci since the pandemic began, repeatedly clashing with him during Senate hearings over the origins of COVID-19 and the funding of gain-of-function research.
The diary entries also detail a personal ransomware attack Fauci experienced, according to The Hill, which reported that "newly released notes written by Fauci offer one of the earliest glimpses into how he adapted to Trump-era Washington as a permanent public official."
Democrats on Paul's committee dismissed the investigation as "one-sided," arguing that Fauci could still face legal exposure despite receiving a federal pardon covering conduct from January 1, 2014, through January 19, 2025. The pardon, issued in the final days of the Biden administration, has been a point of contention among Republicans who argue it was designed to shield Fauci from accountability.
The White House did not directly address the impeachment remark when contacted by Newsweek, instead referring the outlet to Trump's previous statements about Fauci. In August, the president said Fauci potentially should be prosecuted, adding: "What he did is far more serious than a lot of crimes, frankly."
Newsweek reached out to Fauci via email at Georgetown University, where he serves as a Distinguished University Professor in the School of Medicine's Department of Medicine. As of Thursday morning, no response had been reported.
The diary release comes as Paul continues to press for accountability regarding Fauci's tenure at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, where he oversaw funding decisions that critics say contributed to risky virus research in China.
For Americans who lived through the pandemic lockdowns, school closures, and vaccine mandates — many of which Fauci publicly advocated for while privately expressing contempt for the president who questioned them — the diary entries offer a window into the mindset of a man who wielded enormous influence over their lives.
The documents are available for public review on Sen. Paul's official website, and further releases are expected as the committee's investigation continues.
Our Take
Let's be clear about what these diary entries show. The man who stood at the podium and told Americans to "trust the science" was privately trashing the duly elected president while praising the very regime that would later be suspected of leaking a deadly virus from a lab — a lab that Fauci's agency helped fund through EcoHealth Alliance.
Fauci called Trump "an idiot" and "a true embarrassment." He wanted the president impeached. He thought China was doing great work. And for over a year, he used his position as the face of the federal COVID response to lecture Americans about civic duty while harboring this contempt for the president and this admiration for an authoritarian regime.
The pardon he received on the way out the door tells you everything about how the outgoing administration viewed his potential legal liability. But here's the thing about pardons — they don't erase the record. They don't unwrite the diary. And they certainly don't restore the trust that men like Fauci shattered.
Sen. Paul deserves credit for forcing this into the light. The American people paid a steep price for the lockdowns, the mandates, and the censorship that Fauci helped engineer. They deserve to know what the man behind the mask was really thinking.
And now they do.
