How Trump and Fauci publicly fell out of love

The president suggested he might fire Dr Fauci after the election when speaking at a campaign rally

President Donald Trump and Dr Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top leading infectious disease doctor, first entered into a public relationship at the start of the coronavirus pandemic – as the doctor was selected as one member of the Whtie House coronavirus task force.

Dr Fauci, an immunologist, has served as the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIH) since 1984, making him an optimal pick to help guide the United States out of the pandemic.

With a decades-long career in immunology as the director of the NIH, Dr Fauci has worked with six sitting presidents on infectious diseases such as Ebola, Zika, HIV/Aids, and now Covid-19.

At the start of the pandemic, Dr Fauci and Mr Trump appeared often on the same stage together as the White House coronavirus task force would address the public about what they were doing to curb the spread of the novel virus.

But reports of a strained relationship emerged even in the early stages of the pandemic due to the pair being at odds about public policy decisions and the seriousness of Covid-19. While Mr Trump attempted to minimise the dangers of the virus to protect the American economy, Dr Fauci expressed concern about how bad it could get for citizens.

Even so, Dr Fauci has vocally praised the president on policy decisions, like when he decided to close down travel from Europe in March. Dr Fauci told House lawmakers in March that he supported the travel ban by calling the case for them “pretty compelling”.

But the infectious disease expert also on that same day criticised the US for the lack of testing available to all citizens.

"The idea of anybody getting [a test] easily the way people in other countries are doing it, we're not set up for that. Do I think we should be? Yes. But we're not," he told the House Oversight Committee. Mr Trump at the time was saying, "Anybody that wants a test can get a test."

Another incident in the early months when Dr Fauci contradicted the president was during a White House coronavirus task force briefing. The president called hydroxychloroquine a “miracle drug” while Dr Fauci said indicators that the drug could show promise against Covid-19 were purely “anecdotal evidence”. In a September 2020 study of hydroxychloroquine, it was determined the potential benefits of taking the drug did not outweigh the risks.

It was in March when questions about the president possibly firing Dr Fauci for contradicting him first circulated.

When speaking to Science Magazine at the time, Dr Fauci disregarded questions on whether he could be fired and said that even though he disagreed with the president, "on some things, [Mr Trump] listens. He goes his own way".

This didn’t end the rumours of a potential firing. Questions about his status on the White House coronavirus task force again circulated after the leading doctor told CNN that earlier mitigation efforts made by the US would’ve saved more lives.

"Obviously, you could logically say that if you had a process that was ongoing and started mitigation earlier, you could have saved lives. Obviously no one is going to deny that," he told CNN on 12 April. "If we had, right from the very beginning shut everything down, it may have been different. But there was a lot of push back for shutting everything down back then."

Following this interview, the hashtag #FireFauci started to trend on Twitter from people who disagreed with his assessment of the novel virus.

Mr Trump even retweeted a post that featured the hashtag, fuelling speculation the infectious disease expert could be soon off the coronavirus task force. "I banned China long before people spoke up,” Mr Trump wrote when resharing the hashtag. The president has long said he showed an early response to the novel virus by banning travel between China and the US at the end of January – but this ban actually only stopped some travel between the two countries and not all travel.

Dr Fauci later clarified in a task force briefing that he used a “poor choice of words” during the interview with CNN.

As the pandemic went on, Dr Fauci and Mr Trump would publicly contradict each other on topics relating to reopening schools, US testing capabilities, and restarting the economy.

These contradictions would happen in interviews and during press briefings – further dividing the American public on who they should turn to as a credible source for information about the novel virus.

The relationship between the two further dissipated in the summer months. In an interview in June, Dr Fauci said his meetings with the president were on the decline.

"But as you probably noticed, that the task force meetings have not occurred as often lately," he told Stat. "And certainly my meetings with the president have been dramatically decreased."

This interview came after Mr Trump vowed to disband the coronavirus task force back in May. He reversed that decision due to public backlash.

Then on 30 June, Dr Fauci told lawmakers he wouldn’t be surprised if the US hit 100,000 coronavirus cases per day given how poorly he thought mitigation efforts were going across the country. The president again disagreed with the expert, saying he thought the US was “in a good place” to handle the novel virus.

"Dr Fauci is a nice man, but he's made a lot of mistakes," Mr Trump told Fox News’ Sean Hannity in July. The president has criticised Dr Fauci for disapproving of his China travel ban and initially saying masks were not necessary before later advocating for face coverings.

This opinion hasn’t stopped Mr Trump and members of the GOP, though, from using comments Dr Fauci made previously about the administration’s response to the pandemic to boost themselves among the American public.

During the first presidential debate and vice presidential debate, both Mr Trump and Vice President Mike Pence invoked statements made by Dr Fauci previously to validate the Trump administration’s response to the coronavirus.

The strained relationship then hit its peak in October after the Trump campaign released an ad to boast about the administration’s achievements in handling the virus. In the ad, the campaign used a clip of Dr Fauci saying, “I can’t imagine that anybody could be doing more.”

With how the ad was edited, it suggested that Dr Fauci was saying that in regards to Mr Trump and his response to Covid-10, but the top expert has since spoken out against the ad.

“In my nearly five decades of public service, I have never publicly endorsed nor do I now endorse any political candidates,” he said in a statement, according to CNN and NBC News. “The comments attributed to me without my permission in the GOP campaign ad were taken out of context from a broad statement I made months ago about the efforts of federal public health officials.”

Dr Fauci, who has long pushed to be apolitical, then went on CNN after the ad aired to further express his “disappointment” that his words were being used as political pawns in campaign ads.

“I think it’s really unfortunate and really disappointing that they did that,” he told CNN’s Jake Tapper. “It’s so clear I’m not a political person and I have never, either directly or indirectly, endorsed a candidate. And to take a completely out-of-context statement and put it in, which is obviously a political campaign ad, I thought was really very disappointing.”

He added that the Trump campaign should take down the ad that misconstrues his words.

In response to the criticism, Trump campaign’s communications director, Tim Murtaugh, tweeted: “Dr Fauci has repeatedly said the Trump administration did everything possible to save lives.”

Mr Trump also defended the use of Dr Fauci’s interview in the campaign ad.

“They are indeed Dr Fauci’s own words. We have done a ‘phenomenal‘ job, according to certain governors. Many people agree...And now come the Vaccines & Cures, long ahead of projections,” he wrote.

Mr Trump then took to Twitter to attack Dr Fauci on the topic of masks and shutting down the economy. 

“Tony’s pitching arm is far more accurate than his prognostications. “No problem, no masks”. WHO no longer likes Lockdowns - just came out against. Trump was right. We saved 2,000,000 USA lives," Mr Trump wrote. 

The president was referring to World Health Organisation envoy Dr David Nabarro, who warned leaders against relying on lockdowns in order to curb the spread of the coronavirus.

"We in the World Health Organisation do not advocate lockdowns as the primary means of control of this virus,” Mr Nabarro said in an interview with The Spectator.

“The only time we believe a lockdown is justified is to buy you time to reorganise, regroup, rebalance your resources, protect your health workers who are exhausted, but by and large, we’d rather not do it,” he said. “Lockdowns just have one consequence that you must never, ever belittle, and that is making poor people an awful lot poorer.”

When at a Florida campaign rally on Sunday, Mr Trump suggested he was considering firing Dr Fauci after the election. Chants of “Fire Fauci” broke out from the crowd after the president complained about the current media coverage he was getting related to the coronavirus pandemic. 

"Don't tell anybody, but let me wait until a little bit after the election," Mr Trump told the crowd. "I appreciate the advice."

Mr Trump went on to repeat his past criticisms of the infectious diseases expert by saying was was "a nice guy but he's been wrong a lot."

Whether the president has the power to fire Dr Fauci remains unclear because his role as director at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases is not a politically appointed federal position. 

The president’s threat also comes at a time when a majority of the public trust Dr Fauci and his pandemic advice over the Trump administration, according to public polls. 

Dr Fauci was asked in October if he planned to leave the White House coronavirus task force after problems ensued over the Trump campaign’s political ad.

“Not a chance. Not in my wildest freakin’ dreams did I ever think about quitting," the expert told The Daily Beast. 

The Independent has contacted Dr Fauci and the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases about the president’s recent comments.