DOGE Takes Aim At Dr. Fauci, Cancels Funding For ‘Fauci Museum’

Dr. Anthony Fauci may have gotten away with a $5 million book deal chronicling his efforts during the pandemic, but he will no longer be getting his own museum.

The cancellation of a planned “Fauci Museum” was part of more than $180 million in budget cuts to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services as part of President Donald Trump’s crusade to downsize the federal government dramatically. Particularly noteworthy was the termination of a contract for $168,000 to establish an Anthony Fauci exhibit at the National Institute of Health.

“In the past 48 hours, HHS canceled 62 contract [sic] worth $182 million,” The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) announced in a Friday social media post. “These contracts were entirely for administrative expenses – none touched any healthcare programs. This included terminating a $168,000 contract for an Anthony Fauci exhibit at the NIH Museum.”

The news comes as DOGE leader Elon Musk ramps up his search for wasteful spending in federal line items. Last week, the Trump administration gutted the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), a behemoth agency spending an average of $1 billion per week on overseas projects that drew increased scrutiny from conservatives.

Fox News reports that the Fauci exhibit was scheduled to be completed by July 2025 but has now been scrapped, along with $182 million in other projects previously on the docket.

The pandemic expert has long been a controversial figure in the age of Trump. Despite working for five presidential administrations, Fauci gained international recognition during the COVID-19 outbreak when he appeared alongside President Trump during numerous public health briefings, often contradicting or condemning the Republican’s remarks about the state of the pandemic or what Americans could do to stay safe.

Criticism of Fauci continued in the years after he left the White House under the Biden administration, leading observers to claim that his personal safety remained in jeopardy and necessitated public spending on a phalanx of personal security. That protection was quickly rescinded by Trump, who argued that Fauci is wealthy enough now to afford his own security detail.

“I think, you know, when you work for government, at some point your security detail comes off and, you know, you can’t have them forever,” Trump said of the decision. “We took some off other people, too, but you can’t have a security detail for the rest of your life because you work for government.”

Fauci was given a preemptive pardon by former President Joe Biden during the final minutes of his administration, a brazen attempt to shield him from legal retribution by the Trump administration. Conservatives have decried the lingering effects of the pandemic, including the loss of jobs by federal employees who refused to be vaccinated. Many of those consequences were supported by Fauci.

Before his service under Trump, Fauci had spent 46 years in government, joining the NIH in 1968 and earning praise for his effort to combat HIV/AIDS. He served as the agency’s director from 1984 to 2022.

HHS did not immediately respond to the outlet’s request for comment.