U.S. President Donald Trump retweeted a post calling for the firing the administration's leading infectious disease expert Anthony Fauci after the expert said the government's slow response caused more deaths.

Fauci said on Sunday in an interview with CNN that earlier COVID-19 mitigation efforts would have saved more American lives.

Trump reposted a former congressional candidate's tweet that defended Trump against Fauci's comments on CNN . 

"Fauci is now saying that if had Trump listened to the medical experts earlier he could've saved more lives," the Republican politician DeAnna Lorraine said in the tweet, adding "Fauci was telling people on February 29 that there was nothing to worry about and it posed no threat to the U.S. public at large."

It's "time to #FireFauci..." she wrote. 

Trump commented with the retweet: "Sorry Fake News, it's all on tape. I banned China long before people spoke up."

It's the first time that Trump has publicly showed his frustration with the core member of his coronavirus task force formed on January 29 even the expert has contradicted the president's words on coronavirus several times before.

The expert, who has advised six successive presidents, made the remarks in a CNN interview when he was asked if lives could have been saved in the U.S. with earlier mitigation.

"If we had, right from the beginning, shut everything down, it may have been a little bit different," said Fauci. 

However, he further added that making that decision was complicated, saying there was a lot of "pushback" about shutting things down back then.

The country now has over 550,000 COVID-19 cases and 22,109 deaths, many in New York, according to the Johns Hopkins University. 

Fauci also confirmed a New York Times report that he and other officials had advised Trump to issue social distancing guidelines as early as February but Trump didn't take it until about three weeks after, on March 16.  

Health officials can only make recommendations from a "pure health standpoint," Fauci said in response to the NYT report that detailed the Trump administration's missteps in the early days of the pandemic. 

"Often, the recommendation is taken. Sometimes, it's not. But it is what it is; we are where we are right now."

Fauci also suggested in the interview that parts of the U.S. could begin returning to normal as early as May.

"I think it could probably start at least in some ways maybe next month," the expert told CNN. 

Talking about the U.S. presidential election scheduled for November, Fauci said it would still take place if the nation takes a measured approach to lessening restrictions.