Dr. Anthony Fauci downplayed the severity of the wounds suffered by former President Donald Trump when a would-be assassin opened fire with an AR-15 and narrowly missed his head due to a last second turn.

Fauci, who headed up the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases for decades before retiring last year, was asked about the severity of the former president’s injuries during an appearance on CNN.

Trump has been seen wearing a bandage on his right ear in the days following the assassination attempt. The former president was struck by a bullet that grazed his ear when the gunman opened fire, prompting Secret Service agents to dive on top of him. He was seen bleeding from his ear when Secret Service personnel evacuated him from the event.

“I don’t think there is much more to it,” Fauci told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer.  “I mean, from what we’ve seen and what we’ve heard, it was a bullet shot that grazed his ear and injured his ear, according to the physicians who examined him. There was no other further damage.”

(FREE RED HAT: “Impeached. Arrested. Convicted. Shot. Still Standing”)

“So I think that with regard to the health related purely to the bullet itself, I think he’s in the clear as far as I can see. I mean it’s dangerous to make diagnoses from a distance,” the former NIH director continued. “From what I’m seeing, the way he’s acting now and what his physicians report are it seems that been a superficial wound to the ear, and that’s all.”

CNN’s chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta speculated that Trump may be dealing with  “psychological trauma” after the shooting that killed retired firefighter Corey Comperatore and injured two others. Gupta called for a “full public assessment” of Trump’s injuries in order for voters to be informed of his condition.

During Friday night’s segment, Blitzer asked Fauci about Gupta’s opinion. “As you know, he’s a neurosurgeon. What do you make of that?” he asked.

“He’s a good friend. He’s got a good clinical judgment. He’s a practicing neurosurgeon,” Fauci answered.

“So again, it’s very difficult from a distance when you’re not examining someone yourself to make any projection about it. I’m just commenting on what I’m seeing superficially. I would imagine, Wolf, that his physicians did some studying. They very likely did an imaging study, being a CT or an MRI or what have you. I don’t know that as a fact, but I would think that that would be a reasonable thing to do, following an encounter the way he had with a bullet.”

(ALERT: This Is The Handshake That Will Collapse The US Dollar)