Trump To Barstool Sports: Fauci Would Like The Corona Lockdown To Last For Years

In a freewheeling interview with Barstool Sports founder Dave Portnoy, the President praised his White house wuhanvirus taskforce member and immunologist Dr. Anthony Fauci.

The interview happened the same day Fauci was tasked with throwing the ceremonial first pitch at Nationals Park for the Nationals' game against the New York Yankees on Thursday to open the MLB season.

The director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, however found out that throwing a baseball from the mound to the plate is a lot more difficult than fearmongering on TV about the wuhanvirus pandemic. He missed the plate by a fair margin.

"He's actually a very nice guy," Trump told Portnoy. "We don't always agree on everything. He'd like to do things that I don't like to do, but ultimately I make the decision. But we make it -- all -- a group of people. And he's been here for like 45 years, for many, many years. And he's a nice man actually."

Portnoy criticized the wuhanvirus taskforce member. "Fauci is on my 'x' list," he told the President. "Because every time he talks and says the country should stay inside, my stocks tank. So I don't like that aspect of it."

"He'd like it to see it closed up for a couple of years, but that's okay because I'm president, I appreciate your opinion, now give me another opinion, someone please," Trump said of Fauci. "We're open and we're doing well. And I just had a press conference about opening the schools. You've got to open the schools."

During the candid interview, Portnoy asked the president if he ever regretted leaving behind his "dream life" as a businessman and a reality to run for president.

"Somebody said, 'Who is the toughest to deal with? Is it Russia? Is it China? Could it be North Korea?' I said, no. The toughest is the United States. It's the toughest to deal with," Trump responded. "When you look at what I have to do... I have so many people on the left, call them Democrats, call them whatever you want. And then you look at what they're doing with cities. Every city is run by a liberal Democrat and they're going to hell and we have to do something."

Trump's Twitter activity also came up. Do you love doing Twitter?" Portnoy asked.

"There are times when I love it, too much sometimes," the president responded, grinning. He however acknowledged that "it's the retweets" that get him "into trouble."

"You see something that looks good and you don't investigate it and you don't know what's on the helmet exactly, right, which is a miniature and you don't blow it up, and it sometimes -- I have found that almost always it's the retweets that get you in trouble," Trump said.

The interview with Portnoy was taped Thursday afternoon outside the Oval Office as Yankees legend Mariano Rivera stood nearby off-camera. The clips were released Friday.

WATCH President Trump's interview with Dave Portnoy