
(Photo by BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP via Getty Images)
Derek VanBuskirk Reporter
July 27, 20266:10 PM ET
Republican Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul released Dr. Anthony Fauci’s personal diary Sunday, offering a behind-the-scenes look at the first Trump administration officials who aligned with Fauci as the country shut down during COVID-19.
The diary entries portray an administration divided over lockdowns, school closures and messaging, with several Republican officials backing the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases director’s efforts to maintain sweeping public health restrictions while sidelining dissenting voices. (RELATED: Fauci’s Own Diary Undercuts His Public Dismissal Of COVID Lab Leak)
One of the officials who backed the public health bureaucrat was Hope Hicks, a counselor to the president and former White House communications director, whom Fauci described as “very nice” after their first meeting in March 2020.
Fauci soon wrote that Hicks appeared to view him as a “future ally” after seeming uncomfortable with Trump’s desire for the COVID-19 team to hold two press briefings a day to boost morale and the economy through public transparency.

By early April, as Easter approached, Trump had grown increasingly frustrated with the continued shutdown of the economy and the country, calling Hicks and Fauci into the Oval Office to discuss reopening. Fauci wrote that Trump was “almost pleading” not to extend the country’s closure beyond the 30-day lockdown extension.
According to Fauci, Trump said he was destroying the country and that sports leagues and industry would be devastated by the administration’s recommendations.
In an attempt to appeal to Fauci’s Catholic background, Trump proposed reopening the country for Easter, Good Friday and Palm Sunday, suggesting that Masses could be held outdoors or in a drive-in format, but Fauci said he wasn’t persuaded by the president’s recommendation.
“Hope Hicks and I convinced him to essentially put Easter on hold for this year,” Fauci wrote.
By early October, Fauci wrote in bold red letters that “Hope Hicks is infected!!!”





