Dr.Anthony Fauci cut the highest salary of any taxpayer-funded federal employee in 2019, even exceeding the salary of the President of the United States.
Fauci, 80, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, earned $ 417,608 in 2019, the last year records are available, according to information obtained via FOIA and reported by Forbes.
In contrast, the president’s annual salary is $ 400,000 and that of the vice-president is $ 235,100.
Tennessee Valley Authority CEO Jeffrey Lyash is technically a federal employee who earns more, Forbes pointed out, but his salary isn’t just funded by taxpayers.
Fauci, who received his MD from Cornell University, raised $ 3.6 million between 2010 and 2019 and was last seen a raise in 2014, when his salary rose from $ 335,000 to his rate current of $ 417,608. Even if he doesn’t get another raise, Fauci will earn an additional $ 2.5 million between 2019 and 2024.
As Forbes notes, Fauci apparently played down how much money he was making, telling Matthew McConaughey in an interview last August that he didn’t have millions invested in potential vaccines. “Matthew, no, I have nothing!” Said Fauci. “I am a government official. I have a government salary.
Fauci has worked at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) since 1968 and has advised all presidents since former President Ronald Reagan.
Despite the apolitical nature of his work, Fauci has arguably become a politicized and polarizing figure amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Former President Donald Trump publicly called it a “disaster” at one point, and Fauci recently gave an interview to the New York Times in which he criticized Trump. As The Daily Wire reported:
Dr Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, once again criticized former President Trump for scolding his constant pessimism during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Speaking to the New York Times, Fauci said he never took pleasure in “contradicting” the president, but did so to prevent the spread of disinformation.
“It’s not like I take any pleasure in contradicting the President of the United States,” Fauci said. “I have a lot of respect for the office. But I made a decision that I just had to. Otherwise, I would compromise my own integrity and give the world a false message. If I didn’t speak it would be almost unspoken approval that what he was saying was OK, ”he said.
“This is where I started to get into trouble,” he continued. “The people around him, his entourage, were quite upset that I dare to publicly contradict the president.
Fauci added that the president sometimes asks him to be more positive.
“There were a few times I would make a statement that was a pessimistic take on the direction we were going,” Fauci said, “and the president would call me up and say, ‘Hey, why aren’t you- you not more positive? You have to take a positive attitude. Why are you so negativist? Be more positive. “
Related: Fauci announces end of Trump-era restrictions on foreign NGO aid abortion
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