Shortly after a marathon White House coronavirus briefing in which top infectious disease expert Dr. Anthony Fauci walked back his claim there was a “lot of pushback” early on by the Trump administration to implement social distancing, Fauci said he was confident that President Donald Trump has no intention of firing him.

Asked by C-SPAN host Steve Scully about the #FireFauci hashtag promoted by conservative Twitter and retweeted by Trump, the doctor shrugged it off, saying people just didn’t like the way he answered a question from CNN and got it trending. As for whether he believes Trump can fire him, Fauci said: “It depends on what you mean. “I’m on the task force serving at his pleasure. He can remove me from the task force. I was with him for quite a while today. He has no intention of doing that.”