A phone call between former President Barack Obama and Dr. Anthony Fauci at the height of the coronavirus pandemic has burst into public view, revealing that the 44th president had some extraordinarily blunt things to say about his successor and the Trump family. According to a Nov. 4, 2021, diary entry written by Fauci — then director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) and former president Joe Biden’s White House chief medical adviser — Obama rang Fauci on his cellphone and, during what Fauci described as an “incredibly memorable” 25-minute conversation, offered to help as the doctor faced what Fauci called an “onslaught of slanderous lies” from the political right.
Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) released the diary this weekend, continuing his years-long criticism of how Fauci managed the government’s pandemic response. The diary’s contents revealed Obama’s harsh private opinions of both President Donald Trump and his eldest son, Donald Trump Jr.
What Obama Said on the Call
According to Fauci’s diary, Obama characterized him as a “civilian” who shouldn’t face political attacks, contrasting career public servants with elected officials accustomed to partisan warfare. Obama said that while he was used to such treatment as a politician, Fauci had devoted decades solely to serving the American public and the world.
Fauci told Obama about far-right Republicans’ extreme behavior, including Donald Trump Jr. selling merchandise on his website — sweatshirts and T-shirts with the phrase “Fauci kills puppies,” which referenced misleading claims about government-funded experiments involving beagles. Obama’s reaction, according to the diary, was swift and colorful. He called Donald Trump Jr. a “fucking moron,” then caught himself and apologized to Fauci for the crude language — before pivoting and describing President Trump as a “hopeless idiot” and a “pathological liar.”
Obama also conveyed disappointment that moderate Republicans weren’t defending Fauci or rejecting the attacks on his character that Obama considered slanderous, Fauci noted in the diary entry.
Diary Published by Rand Paul
Sen. Paul’s decision to release the diary continues his sustained campaign to examine Fauci’s pandemic role. Paul has made confronting Fauci in Senate hearings and questioning the doctor’s record a central element of his political brand. The diary’s publication gave critics of both Fauci and Obama new material to attack, while also providing the former president’s supporters insight into his private reactions to the political turmoil of that era.
The November 2021 phone call occurred amid an unrelenting right-wing campaign against Fauci, who had become a highly divisive figure in American politics. The “Fauci kills puppies” merchandise was one particularly vivid example of how personal and visceral that campaign had grown.
Obama’s Broader Critique of Trump
Obama’s 2021 private comments align with his pattern of expressing serious doubts about President Trump, though his public criticisms have usually been more restrained. In August 2016, Obama publicly called Trump “unfit to serve as president” and challenged Republican lawmakers to withdraw their support for their party’s nominee, according to contemporaneous reporting from that press conference.
More recently, at the June 18, 2026, opening of the Obama Presidential Center in Chicago, the former president took a series of veiled swipes at the current political climate without naming Trump directly. He invoked the Declaration of Independence and spoke of a nation where “no one is above the law or beneath its protection,” and where the military and law enforcement owe allegiance to the Constitution — not to any individual president or political party. He also noted that every president in attendance that day, regardless of party, had sought to uphold values that figures like the late Sen. John McCain and 2012 Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney had believed in.
Popularity Gap Between the Two Presidents
The contrast between how the two men are viewed by the broader public remains striking. Polling shows 57% of Americans hold a favorable view of Obama, while 34% view President Trump favorably. Former President Biden fares even lower, with 30% viewing him favorably.
For the White House, the publication of Fauci’s diary offers an uncomfortable reminder that even in private, Obama — who has generally avoided frontal attacks on his successors — was apparently not holding back. Whether the Trump camp chooses to engage directly with the disclosures or treat them as old news from a pandemic-era phone call remains to be seen. What is clear is that the diary, now public, ensures the conversation is no longer private.
Sources:
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/barack-obama-donald-trump-jr-fauci-diary-covid_n_6a6c7f01e4b0ea7db0fc27c3
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/obama-challenges-gop-drop-support-trump
https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/5930822-obama-trump-veiled-swipes/