Fringe supporters of Donald Trump have turned on the White House disease expert Dr Anthony Fauci, as rumours about tension between the pair were aired this week.

As the US president called for an end to the economic shutdown on Monday, the New York Times reported that Mr Trump was tiring of Dr Fauci contradicting him in public.

Mr Fauci cautioned that the coronavirus pandemic would not come to a sudden end by Easter, the President’s preferred date for ending emergency measures.

Pro-Trump blogs and pundits have accused Mr Fauci of siding with the ‘Deep State’, with some far-right Republicans viewing the 79-year-old as an establishment figure obstructing the president.

Podcast host, Ben Mitchell, said he hoped Mr Trump was listening, and called the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) “Dr Doom Fauci”.

He said on Twitter: “Has anyone else noticed that every suggestion by Dr Doom Fauci just happens to also be the worst possible thing for the economy?”

“That’s not an accident folks. That’s Hillary,” added Mr Mitchell.

The accusation that NAID director was also a plant for Hillary Clinton has appeared in pro-Trump blogs in recent days.

Mr Fauci was described by The Gateway Pundit as a “Hillary Clinton fanboy”, after it obtained two emails stolen by Wikileaks in which the disease expert praised Ms Clinton.

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On Tuesday, the 2016 Democratic nominee for president angered Trump supporters with a caution “not [to] take medical advice from a man who looked directly at a solar eclipse”.

Republicans and most Trump supporters have, however, moved to back Mr Fauci. “I think he’s obviously excellent at his job, and I think he’s aware that he’s on that stage to offer detail and help finesse language, and he seems cool with it,” said Raheem Kassam, the former editor of Breitbart London and host of the podcast “War Room”.