The ad, released last week shortly after the president was discharged from Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, touts the president’s response to the virus and includes an edited clip of Fauci that makes it seem as though he was praising Trump’s response to the pandemic.

In the 30-second spot, Fauci is heard saying, “I can’t imagine that anybody could be doing more.”

Fauci this week said his remarks, taken from a March interview, were in reference to fellow members of the White House coronavirus task force and other public health officials.

“In my nearly five decades of public service, I have never publicly endorsed any political candidate. The comments attributed to me without my permission in the GOP campaign ad were taken out of context from a broad statement I made months ago about the efforts of federal public health officials,” Fauci said in a statement Sunday.

During an interview with CNN’s Jake Tapper the following day, Fauci said he thinks the campaign should take down the ad.

“I think it’s really unfortunate and really disappointing that they did that,” Fauci said.

“It is so clear that I am not a political person, and I have never either directly or indirectly endorsed a political candidate, and to take a completely out-of-context statement and put it in … A political campaign ad, I thought, was really very disappointing,” Fauci said, The Hill reported.

The rebuke from Fauci comes as the president has repeatedly meddled with decisionmaking at the Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), often without much if any pushback from those agencies.

Trump has also lashed out at those agency heads, undermining their public messaging.

Fauci’s comments, however, mark the second time in as many weeks that he has publicly distanced himself from Trump.

During the first presidential debate, on Sept. 29, Trump suggested that his health officials have changed their minds about the benefits of masks during the pandemic, noting that the CDC has not always recommended the use of face coverings.

“Dr. Fauci said the opposite. He very strongly said masks aren’t good, and then he changed his mind. He said masks are good,” Trump said.

Fauci said later that week that his stance on the benefits of face masks was “taken out of context” and that the initial recommendation against widespread use of masks was due to a shortage for health providers.

He said scientists quickly changed their recommendations after realizing the extent to which asymptomatic spread was contributing to COVID-19 infections.

The Trump campaign’s use of Fauci’s remarks underscores how, more than six months into the pandemic, he is still viewed as a trusted source of information on the pandemic, in contrast to the president, who has faced harsh criticism throughout.

Amesh Adalja, an infectious disease expert at the Johns Hopkins University Center for Health Security, said he can understand why the Trump campaign would want to imply an endorsement from Fauci.

“Dr. Fauci is a valuable resource and a world-renowned expert, so people will try to have his reputation kind of shower on to them, even when it’s undeserved,” Adalja said.

Yet given Trump’s propensity to lash out and contradict even his own experts, Adalja said it was “baffling and paradoxical” that Trump would want that message in his ads.

The latest dispute between Fauci and Trump also underscores what’s been a complicated relationship throughout the pandemic.

As Trump spent much of the spring and summer downplaying the extent of the pandemic, Fauci sounded the alarm, at times directly contradicting the president.

In July, Trump publicly mused about Fauci’s high favorability ratings when his were so low.

Fauci has also come under attack from some of Trump’s aides and surrogates, with the White House at one point providing a memo to reporters detailing all the “wrong” statements Fauci had made about the pandemic.

Mark Rosenberg, an epidemiologist who ran the CDC’s National Center for Injury Prevention and Control from 1994 to 1999, said he thinks Fauci has deftly walked a fine line between speaking up for science without openly criticizing Trump.

“I think he was critical of the people who put the ad together. I don’t think he personalized it … and said this was President Trump’s fault. I think he has found a way to stand up without incurring the wrath of Donald Trump,” Rosenberg said.

Rosenberg added that he isn’t worried people might lose confidence in Fauci because of the ad since its clear Fauci is being used.

But with Trump trailing Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden in national and key battleground state polls, in large part because of his handling of the coronavirus pandemic, Rosenberg said it’s likely Trump’s relationship with Fauci could deteriorate if those poll numbers decline further.

“The relationship will get worse, but I don’t think Trump will fire Fauci,” Rosenberg said, arguing a drastic action like that would just serve to highlight more of Trump’s failures.

The event at an airport in Sanford, Florida, will be Trump’s first campaign rally since he disclosed on Oct 2 that he tested positive for COVID-19.

Trump, who spent three days in the hospital for treatment, said on Sunday he was fully recovered and no longer infectious, but did not say directly whether he had tested negative for the virus, Reuters reported.

The Republican president is seeking to change the dynamics of a race that opinion polls show he is losing to Democratic rival Joe Biden just 21 days before Election Day.

For months, Trump had worked furiously to shift public attention away from the virus and his handling of the pandemic, which has infected nearly 7.7 million people in the United States, killed more than 214,000 and put millions out of work.

But his own illness has put the spotlight squarely on his coronavirus response during the closing stretch of the race.

Biden, in a sign of fresh optimism as he leads Trump in national and many key state polls, heads on Monday to Ohio, a state Trump won by 8 percentage points in 2016.

It is Biden’s second campaign trip in as many weeks to Ohio, which was once thought out of reach but where polls now show a tight race.

Trump’s rally in Florida, and planned rallies in Pennsylvania on Tuesday, Iowa on Wednesday and North Carolina on Thursday, will be watched closely to see whether the president has changed his approach to campaigning since contracting the virus.

He has been criticized for failing to encourage supporters at campaign events, and even White House staff, to wear protective masks and abide by social-distancing guidelines. At least 11 close Trump aides have tested positive for the coronavirus.

Trump, speaking from a White House balcony on Saturday, urged hundreds of largely Black and Latino supporters to help get out the vote.

Standing alone, Trump was not wearing a mask as he spoke. Most in the crowd were wearing masks but not following social-distancing guidelines.

Asked on Saturday if Trump should be resuming rallies, Biden said it was important that he makes it clear to all those in attendance the importance of staying socially distanced and wearing masks.

“That’s the only responsible thing to do,” Biden told reporters.

Trump told Fox News in an interview on Sunday that he felt good and pointed to his physician’s memo from Saturday saying he had taken a test showing he was no longer infectious.

“I passed the highest test, the highest standards, and I’m in great shape,” Trump told “Sunday Morning Futures.”

Trump also said, without producing evidence, that he was now immune, an assertion that drew a flag from Twitter for violating the social media platform’s rules about misleading information related to COVID-19.

The scientific research has been inconclusive on how long people who have recovered from COVID-19 have antibodies and are protected from a second infection.

Most recent polls in Florida, where a Trump loss would dramatically narrow his path to re-election, show Biden with a small lead. Trump won Florida over Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton in 2016 by just 1.2 percentage points, which helped propel him to the White House.

On his visit to Ohio, Biden will deliver a speech in Toledo meant to undermine what polls show is Trump’s last greatest strength, the view among some voters that the former real estate entrepreneur is better on handling the economy.

Biden also will attend a get-out-the-vote event in Cincinnati, his campaign said.

Trump has pulled back his advertising in Ohio in recent days, while Biden has increased his, another sign of the opportunity the former vice president and his fellow Democrats see to make more states competitive than they initially imagined.

President Trump’s first campaign rally since March is slated for Saturday evening in Tulsa, Okla., and tensions are rising between protest crowds and supporters of the president ahead of the event, The Hill reported.

Current estimates suggest 100,000 or more people may enter downtown Tulsa on Saturday, with expectations that some of them will be anti-Trump protesters, according to the Tulsa World.

A fence has been put up around the BOK Center, where Trump’s rally is set to take place Saturday evening.

Following a discussion with Trump, Tulsa Mayor G.T. Bynum (R) agreed to toss a proposed curfew that was initiated Thursday night.

State health officials reported on Saturday 225 new cases of COVID-19, marking a daily high in increases for Tulsa County.

Health department data reveals Tulsa County’s seven-day rolling average for COVID-19 cases has increased from 24.9 cases on June 7 to 51.4 as of Friday.

On Saturday, a truck displaying digital real-time imagery of the Trump Death Clock rolled into downtown Tulsa. The clock that allegedly estimates the number of Americans who have died needlessly from COVID-19, The Guardian reported.