Trump attacked Dr Fauci's advice and boasted of ignoring government experts in his coronavirus response

In an upcoming interview with GrayTV, Trump boasted that "I didn't listen to my experts" early in his response to the disease.
The US has seen unprecedented numbers of new cases, prompting Dr Fauci to comment Monday that the situation is "really not good."
But Trump said he thinks the US is "in a good place," characterizing the major surge in cases in Florida as "spiking up a little bit."
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President Donald Trump criticized Dr Anthony Fauci and boasted about not listening to government experts while working out his response to the coronavirus.

In an interview with former Fox News host Greta Van Susteren, the president said that he disagreed with earlier comments from Fauci that the US is still "knee-deep in the first wave" of the coronavirus crisis.

The interview was for GrayTV, a US television network where Van Susteren is chief political analyst. It is due to be broadcast on Sunday, but excerpts were published in advance by CBS News and The Guardian .

Fauci, the country's top infectious disease expert and a leading member of the administration's coronavirus task force, on Monday described the state of the US outbreak as "really not good."

The US recorded more than 50,000 new cases per day for the first time on July 2, and did so again several times in the following days.

However, Trump said "I think we're in a good place," adding that he disagreed with Fauci's assessment of the situation, CBS reported.

"You know, Dr. Fauci said 'don't wear masks,' and now he says 'wear them,'" CBS reported the president as saying.

"And you know, he's said numerous things: 'Don't close off China. Don't ban China.' And I did it anyway. I sort of didn't listen to my experts and I banned China."

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The China comment was in reference to an early response from the Trump administration barring all foreign nationals who had recently visited China from entering the US.

Trump also conceded that he would be "flexible" over the plan for the Republican National Convention to be held in Florida.

Organizers had moved the convention to Florida while the virus appeared to be under control and when social distancing measures had been relaxed, The New York Times reported .

However, the state is now experiencing a major surge in new cases, rising more than 30% in the last week, according to The Guardian .

Trump described this as "spiking up a little bit" and predicted the numbers would go down. However, he said: "We're very flexible, we can do a lot of things."