Former Trump Advisor Peter Navarro Says He Told President Multiple Times To Fire Fauci

Peter Navarro, a former trade adviser to Donald Trump, slammed Doctor Anthony Fauci as an “evil” man whom he advised the former President to fire on at least two occasions.

Navarro made the comments during a Wednesday radio interview.

Navarro alleges an incident that devolved into a “screaming match” between the two over a proposed travel ban led him to conclude Fauci “thinks he’s smarter than he is.”

The one-time Director of Trade and Manufacturing Policy spoke specifically about Fauci’s role in gain-of-function research prior to the deadly COVID-19 outbreak.

RELATED: Rand Paul Says Fauci Lied To Congress After Report Shows U.S. Funded Wuhan Coronavirus Research

Peter Navarro: Fauci Is Evil

During the interview, Peter Navarro said he told President Trump to fire Fauci on at least two occasions, but didn’t bemoan him for not taking his advice.

Navarro said that keeping Fauci on board as Trump did may not have been a mistake on his part personally, but “it was a mistake for the republic because that man is evil.”

He reiterated his opinion a second time.

“Make no mistake about this,” Navarro continued. “He is evil because he was at the American bureaucracy that used taxpayer dollars” to pursue gain-of-function experiments – an allegation Fauci has denied.

Gain-of-function research is medical research that genetically alters an organism in a way that may enhance its biological functions so that scientists can investigate better ways to fight the more lethal and infectious pathogens.

RELATED: Radio Host Mark Levin Calls Out Fauci: ‘Let’s Be Honest, He’s Been Wrong A Lot’

Did Fauci Lie To Congress?

Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases under the NIH, has been accused of lying to Congress about U.S. funding for coronavirus research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology.

Internal documents obtained by The Intercept through a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit show the NIH provided a “bat coronavirus grant” to a group called the EcoHealth Alliance.

Fauci repeatedly insisted during Senate testimony that the research funded by the NIH at the Wuhan lab did not qualify as “gain-of-function.”

Rutgers University chemical biology professor Richard Ebright posted to social media that prior insistence that they did not support gain-of-function research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) was false.

“The documents make it clear that assertions by the NIH Director, Francis Collins, and the NIAID Director, Anthony Fauci, that the NIH did not support gain-of-function research or potential pandemic pathogen enhancement at WIV are untruthful,” Ebright wrote.

Senator Rand Paul accused Fauci of “lying” during his Senate testimony, something that prompted Fauci to fire back.

“I have never lied before the Congress, and I do not retract that statement,” Fauci replied. “You do not know what you are talking about quite frankly and I want to say that officially.”

Paul on Tuesday further accused Dr. Fauci of lying about natural immunity.

“Hey, this guy has an opinion on baseball, hockey, Tinder, and Christmas, but he was asked the other day about natural immunity that you acquire after the disease, he is like, ‘Oh, that is a really interesting thought, I never thought about that,” Paul scoffed.

“‘I don’t have an opinion because I haven’t thought about naturally acquired immunity,'” the Kentucky Senator continued. “He has and he is lying to you.”

Navarro, aside from calling Anthony Fauci evil, has had other strongly negative comments about President Biden’s chief medical adviser.

Navarro penned a controversial op-ed in USA Today last July that said the good doctor “has been wrong about everything I have interacted with him on.”