Trump said he opposed Fauci's plan to shut down the country for COVID: 'His ideas were CRAZY!'

President Donald Trump took to Truth Social on Wednesday to criticize Dr. Anthony Fauci, who is scheduled to testify on Wednesday before the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee. 

Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., who chairs the committee, released a trove of documents that he called Fauci's "diary." The documents reveal that Fauci was aware of a serious scientific debate on the origins of the COVID virus, with some experts suspecting it had leaked from a lab in Wuhan, China, and that Fauci was relishing in the media attention he was receiving at the start of the pandemic. 

In a post on Truth Social, Trump said that he had been saying "from the beginning" that the COVID virus had come from a laboratory in Wuhan. 

Trump also touted his "Operation Warp Speed" response to the pandemic, which was initiated in May 2020 to fast-track COVID-19 vaccines. Trump called it "one of the most successful things ever done by an American President." 

Trump said that Fauci, who was director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases under the first Trump administration, wanted to shut down the country, but Trump "overrode" him. 

"His ideas were CRAZY!" Trump said on Truth Social.

Trump also remarked on how Fauci changed his position on masks, first opposing them and then becoming an ardent champion of wearing masks. 

"I went the Federalist way, and let the governors decide. The Republican governors did a much better job than the Dumocrats," Trump said. 

He said that under the first Trump administration, Fauci was "taken out of play," but then former President Joe Biden made Fauci a "king." 

"I called Biden to tell him Fauci was no good, either didn’t have a clue, or was dishonest. The call was well received, but sadly,
not acted on. Biden went on to give Fauci vast destructive power," Trump said.