(José Niño, Headline USA) A mural at the National Institutes of Health commemorating Dr. Anthony Fauci has reportedly been taken down.

The mural had a phrase that read “science is telling us that we can do phenomenal things if we put our minds and our resources to it.”

According to a Washington Post report, in the first weeks after President Donald Trump took office, the mural was taken down. 

Three current NIH staffers sent The Post photographs of the missing Fauci mural. 

The NIH did not offer an explanation as to why the mural was removed. However, this move appears to be in line with the Trump administration’s recent actions to distance itself from Fauci’s legacy. 

Five years ago, in Trump’s first presidential term, the “slow the spread” initiative was rolled out. It consisted of a two-week campaign of guidelines and measures with the aim of slowing the spread of the COVID-19 virus. 

Trump and the White House Coronavirus Task Force, which Fauci was in charge of, claimed the health guidelines, mostly focused on social distancing, would be effective in containing the spread of the virus. 

“This is the kind of treatment that scientists get in totalitarian societies like Stalinist Russia if they don’t toe the political line of the leaders” — @RepRaskin

A mural of Tony Fauci was meant to inspire staff. Then NIH took it down. https://t.co/JbsQsGpqP8 🎁🔗 pic.twitter.com/XN1oss11nd

— John Morales (@JohnMoralesTV) March 15, 2025

However, Trump and his advisers changed course, and started to blame Fauci for his policy advice to implement COVID shutdowns, school closures, and vaccine mandates.

Tesla founder Elon Musk has been highly critical of Fauci, calling him a “freaking demon” back in November, and claiming he funded virus research in China that kicked off the pandemic. Fauci and his supporters have sharply rejected these allegations. 

To shield Fauci from potential punitive action taken by the Trump administration, former President Joe Biden granted him a preemptive pardon. 

So far in the second Trump administration, Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency has targeted the NIH in an effort to eliminate waste and potential fraud. Such a campaign has been met with resistance from House Democrats. 

“It’s a profound threat to scientific progress in America,” Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-MD, said at a recent rally outside the NIH. “This is the jewel of the scientific establishment … and Elon Musk and DOGE have brought their slash-and-burn tactics right to its doorstep.”

The Trump administration has defended its initiatives to hold the NIH accountable, claiming the funding will allocate money toward scientific research and away from administrative costs. 

“Americans are no longer interested in blind faith adherence to demonstrably fallible ‘experts’ like Anthony Fauci,” spokesman Kush Desai stated. “The Trump administration will continue to restore transparency, accountability, and confidence in our healthcare apparatus to Make America Healthy Again while being a good steward of taxpayer dollars.” 

Fauci was appointed to the position of Director of National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) in 1984, a position he held for 38 years until his retirement in December 2022.

José Niño is the deputy editor of Headline USA. Follow him at x.com/JoseAlNino