For years, the bitter aftermath of the 2020 election has been defined by public accusations, courtroom battles and an unprecedented refusal by Donald Trump to concede defeat. But on Wednesday morning, Trump suddenly introduced a surprising new chapter: a private telephone conversation he claims took place with Joe Biden.

According to Trump, the subject of that extraordinary call was not the election, the transfer of power or the turmoil consuming Washington.

It was Dr. Anthony Fauci.

Trump disclosed the purported conversation in a lengthy Truth Social post attacking the former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. The president claimed he personally warned Biden that Fauci was either incompetent or dishonest—but that Biden failed to act.

“I called Biden to tell him Fauci was no good, either didn’t have a clue, or was dishonest,” Trump wrote. “The call was well received, but sadly, not acted on.”

Then came the dramatic conclusion: “The rest is history!”

Trump did not provide a date for the supposed conversation, describe how long it lasted or explain who else may have been present. Biden’s representatives did not immediately respond in the information provided, and no independent confirmation of the call was cited.

That uncertainty has created a compelling political mystery. If the conversation occurred as Trump described, it would represent a striking moment of direct communication between two men whose relationship had become extraordinarily hostile after the 2020 election.

Trump was publicly contesting Biden’s victory, spreading unsupported claims about widespread election fraud and resisting the traditional rituals of presidential transition. Yet his latest account suggests he still found time to privately advise the incoming president about one of the most influential public-health officials in America.

The timing of Trump’s revelation was hardly accidental.

Fauci has returned to the center of Washington’s political storm following the publication of diary entries from the COVID-19 pandemic. He was scheduled to testify Wednesday before the Senate Homeland Security Committee, where lawmakers were expected to question him about pandemic policy, research practices and competing theories surrounding the origin of the coronavirus.

Trump seized the moment to rewrite the story of his own relationship with Fauci.

“Fauci was largely taken out of play, and then along came Sleepy Joe Biden, who made Fauci a ‘King!’” Trump wrote.

That portrayal clashes with the reality that Fauci remained a prominent member of the federal pandemic response throughout much of Trump’s first administration. He regularly appeared at White House briefings and became one of the country’s most recognizable public-health voices.

Their relationship deteriorated as the pandemic continued. Fauci stressed caution and evolving scientific guidance, while Trump pushed for faster reopening and frequently offered his own assessments of the crisis. Their public disagreements became symbols of a deeper conflict between political messaging and public-health policy.

In Wednesday’s post, Trump revived some of those old grievances.

“His ideas were CRAZY!” the president declared. Trump accused Fauci of changing his position on masks, seeking overly broad shutdowns and resisting the theory that the virus originated in a Chinese laboratory.

Some of those claims require important context. Scientific guidance on masking changed as researchers learned more about how the virus spread and as supplies became more widely available. The precise origin of COVID-19 has remained the subject of investigation and debate, with no publicly established evidence proving all of Trump’s allegations about Fauci’s motives.

Trump also sought to distance himself from the restrictions imposed during the pandemic, arguing that he allowed state governors to make many of the most consequential decisions.

“I went the Federalist way, and let the governors decide,” he wrote, before claiming Republican governors performed better than their Democratic counterparts.

The renewed attack reveals how politically potent the pandemic remains years later. For Trump, Fauci is more than a former government scientist. He is a convenient symbol of the institutions, experts and officials the president believes resisted him.

For Fauci’s critics, the Senate hearing represents an opportunity to revisit unanswered questions and challenge decisions made during a chaotic national emergency. For his defenders, the attacks are an attempt to assign one official responsibility for a complex crisis that spanned agencies, administrations and governments worldwide.

But Trump’s alleged telephone call to Biden adds a new layer of intrigue.

Was it a genuine attempt to warn his successor? Was it part of a broader post-election conversation? Or is Trump now presenting an unverifiable private exchange in a way that supports his latest campaign against Fauci?

Until Biden or someone familiar with the alleged call confirms it, Trump’s account remains precisely that—Trump’s account.

Still, the revelation achieves something politically valuable for the president. It places him at the center of the story again, casts Biden as the man who ignored a warning and portrays Fauci as a danger Trump supposedly recognized before others did.

As Fauci faces senators and the country again confronts the unresolved anger of the pandemic era, one mysterious phone call now hangs over the debate.

Trump says Biden listened. Trump says Biden did nothing.

And with five ominous words—“The rest is history”—the president has reopened one of America’s deepest political wounds.