Trump orders Smithsonian signs warning of ‘inaccurate’ history
President Trump orders warning signs at the Smithsonian amid a dispute over how American history is presented.
WASHINGTON — Dr. Anthony Fauci called President Donald Trump “out of control,” a “true embarrassment” and “an idiot” in his personal diary as the nation’s then-top scientist worked in 2020 to combat the COVID-19 pandemic.
At the same time, Fauci reveled in his own celebrity and the extensive media coverage he was receiving that turned a lifelong bureaucrat into a national star ‒ and later a villain – to many.
Fauci’s animosity toward Trump and astonishment about his personal fame are revealed throughout 1,141 pages of diary entries Fauci kept as director of the National Intelligence of Allergy and Infectious Diseases while the pandemic raged. Sen. Rand Paul, R-Kentucky, a longtime Fauci critic, released the documents ahead of Fauci’s scheduled appearance before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee on July 29.
In the publicized diary entries ‒ which span from December 2019 to August 2022 ‒ Fauci accused Trump multiple times of not taking scientific advice about the pandemic seriously in a push to reopen the country from lockdowns for political reasons ahead of the 2020 election. USA TODAY is reproducing quotes as they appear in the diary, including misspellings.
“Trump getting out of control in pushing to open up the country and get the economy back before election day,” Fauci wrote on May 22, 2020. “He is desparate. This is all about re-election.”
Less than three weeks before the election, Fauci on Oct. 15, 2020, wrote: “As the election nears, the cases increase and surges are inevitable as we enter cooler weather. Trump is on the campaign trail spewing nonsense. He is really out of control. A true embarrassment.”
‘He is a very strange guy,’ Fauci wrote of Trump
Trump in 2020 initially embraced Fauci in the months after the pandemic hit the United States during Trump’s final year in office, often giving Fauci opportunities to speak behind the White House podium at press briefings. But their relationship soured as the pandemic dragged on, with Trump publicly attacking Fauci’s credibility in the weeks before the 2020 election.
“The POTUS is playing a weird game of acting Okay with me in person and saying that our relationship is fine to the press and then retweeting stuff that attacks me. He is a very strange guy,” Fauci wrote in a July 28, 2020, diary entry.
A major point of contention between the two men was Trump’s disapproval of the message Fauci and Deborah Birx, coordinator of the White House Coronavirus Task Force, pushed during television appearances.
“POTUS acting even more erratically. Keeps insisting that increased case numbers are due only to increased testing, ignoring the increases in percent positive, hospitalizations and deaths (>1000/day). Inconsistent message to me whether they want me on TV,” Fauci wrote in his diary on Aug. 8, 2020.
In the same entry, Fauci said he asked White House communications aide Alyssa Farah “where I stood with the WH” on going on television for interviews.
“She said that she would want me on every day and every night. However, the POTUS keeps saying that the Doctors are contradicting him and he is very impulsive and so when he sees or hears about a contradiction he blows up and says either Birx should not be on TV or Fauci should not be on TV.”
A month later, in a Sept. 13, 2020, diary entry, Fauci wrote that Trump called him and “started a diatribe” about an interview Fauci conducted with MSNBC.
“He said that I was great on Thursday with John Roberts (FOX) and so ‘what happened’ to make me negative. I tried to explain to him that the entire message was not all negative. I was really saying that there is a risk with the upticks in ND, SD, MT and other states for a surge if we do not intensify the public health measures of masks, distance, crowds, etc.”
Fauci said the call ended on a “friendly note” but added “it was clear that he did not want me to do this anymore.”
Trump responds to Fauci’s criticism in diary
Trump addressed Fauci’s diaries and criticism of him in a July 28 appearance on Fox News. “He wanted to close everything down, and I didn’t,” Trump said. “Had I taken his advice, the whole country would have been closed down.”
Trump added he “was not a believer” in Fauci, accusing the former NIAID director of changing his advice on face masks during the pandemic. “I lost a lot of respect for him during the period of time, but I inherited him. He’s been there since the 1980s.”
Fauci, who stayed on as NIAID director under Biden, resigned at the end of 2022 after serving seven presidents across four decades. Throughout the diary, Fauci took note of the numerous front-page stories and television profiles that made him into a household name during the pandemic.
“Press still hot and heavy about me,” he wrote on April 7, 2020.
“Big front page article abut me appeared in the Washington Post. Very flattering,” Fauci wrote on May 21, 2020. “The situation with my national and international fame is explosive and really unimaginable. It is not hyoperbole to say that today I am the most famous and talked about person in the country and one of the most recognizable peson in the world.
“Countless profiles on me in multiple media. I cannot even read all the things that are written abuyt me since I amso busy….seriously. POTUS seems to be enamored of me even though I am taking the spotlight away from him.”
In the same entry, Fauci added of Trump: “We are developing a very unique and interesting relationship.”
‘What an idiot!!’
Yet Fauci’s criticism of Trump would later extend beyond the president’s efforts to combat COVID-19. After Trump’s first presidential debate against Democratic nominee Joe Biden on Sept. 29, Fauci wrote, “1st Presidential Debate tonight. Horrible ‘s–t show’.”
“Trump was embarrassing, continually interrupting Biden, bullying all the way, making no sense, lying,” Fauci continued. “Moderator Chris Wallace could not control him. Trump refused to denounce White Supremacists and when asked about the ‘Proud Boys’, Trump said ‘Stand down, stand by’ essentially endorsing them. Alos, he misquoted me saying that I am against masks. He also said that I praised him for saving lives by shutting down China travel.”
In an Aug. 31, 2020, diary entry, Fauci accused Trump of “stoking violence (racial tensions)” in Kenosha, Wisconsin and Portland Oregon and said the president was embracing false claims from right-wing QAnon groups about deaths related to COVID-19.
“QAnon is saying that all the other deaths had nothing to do with COVID-19. The POTUS loves this and is tweeting that Fauci and Birx shut down the country for only 9000 deaths. What an idiot!!” Fauci wrote.
In a June 6, 2021, diary entry ‒ months after Trump’s 2020 election loss ‒ Fauci again complained about the former president and the “vicious assault” on him from the political right.
“Most recently House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy has called for me to be fired. What an amazing coward he is. The entire extreme right wing republican group in the House and Senate have completely sold their soul to the infinitely lying ex president trump.”
Reach Joey Garrison on X @joeygarrison.