Trump says Dr Fauci's Covid forecasts were less accurate than his infamous shanked baseball pitch

Adviser has complained that his words have been taken out of context to produce a Trump campaign ad in Michigan

Donald Trump has taken a swipe at Dr Anthony Fauci, the US’s top coronavirus adviser, saying his forecasts for the coronavirus pandemic were even less accurate than the notoriously weak first pitch he threw out at a baseball game in July.

“Tony’s pitching arm is far more accurate than his prognostications,” wrote the president in a tweet. “Trump was right. We saved 2,000,000 USA lives!!!”

The president’s latest turn against Dr Fauci comes as the adviser complains of being taken out of context in a Trump campaign ad airing in Michigan, in which he is shown supposedly praising the president’s response in a clip from March this year. In fact, he was describing the efforts of the entire government team fighting the virus.

Mr Trump’s claim to have saved more than 2m lives is based on a model assuming the government had taken no action against the virus whatsoever. The current US death toll stands at more than 210,000 – around 20 per cent of the global death toll, even though the US hosts only 4 per cent of the world’s population.

Dr Fauci has been one of the most consistently visible figures in the Trump administration’s efforts to contain and fight the pandemic, appearing regularly alongside the president throughout the spring at White House press briefings until they were cancelled.

He has become an extremely popular figure among much of the American public, but is considered by some as part of a (fictional) conspiracy to encroach on Americans’ liberty by forcing them to wear masks, stay at home, and prepare for vaccination.

Dr Fauci has lately become more outspoken against some of the Trump administration’s decisions and the pronouncements of certain of its key figures – including the president himself. As Mr Trump recovered from the coronavirus and promptly scheduled back-to-back large rallies around the country, including states where infections are rising, he told CNN that there was no denying the obvious risks.

“The data speaks for itself,” he said. “Now is even more so a worse time to do that. When you look at what’s going on in the United States, it’s really very troublesome.”

Some TV networks and former Trump administration staff have reported that Dr Fauci has been periodically banned from appearing on TV because of his statements contradicting the White House’s optimistic line.

In recent weeks he has repeatedly stressed that with infections and hospitalisations on the rise, the country should be taking measures to avoid a disastrous spike in the cold winter months that could result in tens of thousands more deaths.