President Trump publicly signaled his frustration on Sunday with Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, the federal government’s top infectious disease expert, after the doctor said more lives could have been saved from the coronavirus if the country had been shut down earlier.
Mr. Trump reposted a Twitter message that said “Time to #FireFauci” as he rejected criticism of his slow initial response to the pandemic that has now killed more than 22,000 people in the United States. The president privately has been irritated at times with Dr. Fauci, but the Twitter post was the most explicit he has been in letting that show publicly.
Sorry Fake News, it’s all on tape. I banned China long before people spoke up. Thank you @OANN https://t.co/d40JQkUZg5
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 12, 2020
Also:
Over the weekend, the president picked up the phone and began dialing various close advisers and associates to ask them their opinion on how soon he should “open” the U.S. economy....That last part is meant to be reassuring. It isn't. It means that Trump expects Fauci to grovel before him in public, to begin prefacing his remarks with "Thanks to the bold, decisive leadership of the president..."
... certain key members of his coronavirus task force—including Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases—have urged a more cautious, patient approach, particularly on “reopening” the United States for business.
And so the doctor appeared to weigh on Trump’s mind this Easter weekend....
“What do you think of Fauci?” the president repeatedly worked into his phone conversations over the past few days, ... three sources said.... At one point this weekend, Trump remarked that he’s made Fauci a “star” and that barely anybody would have known who the doctor was were it not for the president putting him front and center in the administration’s coronavirus response, televised press briefings, and media strategy.
“He did not sound bitter about it, I wouldn’t say that,” one of the people familiar with the comments said. “It just sounded like he thought it was worth a reminder.”
Perhaps Trump will conclude that firing Fauci would cause him more trouble than it's worth, as he did when he concluded that he couldn't arrange the termination of Robert Mueller. Perhaps he'll just toy with Fauci for months, the way he did with Jeff Sessions.
But if he continues to be peeved at Fauci, one thing is certain: Fauci's poll numbers will dip somewhat. Fauci will still get very high marks from Democrats and independents. But Republicans take their cue from Dear Leader, who's been relatively nice to Fauci until now. They'll turn on Fauci in large numbers.
Right now, Republicans like Fauci as much as the rest of us do. In a recent Quinnipiac poll, Fauci's approval was 81% among Democrats, 79% among independents, and 77% among Republicans. (Trump is at 89% among Republicans, 12% among Democrats, 43% among independents.) In a Morning Consult poll, 80% of Democrats and 79% of Republicans say they're satisfied with the quality of information they're getting from Fauci. (Trump is also at 79% among Republicans, but at 16% among Democrats.) In a Florida poll conducted by the University of North Florida, 86% of Republicans, 85% of Democrats, and 80% of independents say they approve of Fauci's work on the pandemic. (Trump's numbers are 85% among Republican, 12% among Democrats, and 40% among independents.)
But if Trump turns against Fauci, Republican voters will no longer feel they have permission to like the doctor. If Trump turns on him, they'll turn on him.
I hope no one in the mainstream media believes that the inevitable dip in Fauci's poll numbers suggests a general loss of the public's trust. It'll just be Republican voters doing as they're told.
*****
A quck word on DeAnna Lorraine, whose #FireFauci tweet was retweeted by the president. She's the author of a book, apparently self-published, titled Making Love Great Again!: The New Road to Reviving Romance and Winning at Relationships. The promo material posted at Amazon describes it as follows:
They say Politics is downstream from Culture - And we are currently knee-deep in a Cultural Apocalypse. There are more single adults than ever before, yet people are not connecting and forming real relationships. The US birth rate is at the lowest point in history, traditional values are under attack, the family unit is broken, and any sense of traditional romance and chivalry have all but died at this point. In Making Love Great Again, DeAnna explains how Feminism, Marxism and radical "Progressivism" have killed romance, relationships and the family unit, and destroyed our culture from within. She explains why many men are "boycotting" marriages with women and no longer interested in committing beyond a fling (HINT: Feminism and the #MeToo movement)....I'll stop there. She also has a YouTube channel with similar content.
Lorraine ran for Nancy Pelosi's seat in the March 3 nonpartisan primary. She finished fifth, with 4,635 votes. (Pelosi won 190,574 votes.) Here's a campaign video -- posted to YouTube, for some reason, eight days after Lorraine's defeat -- in which she superimposes her own face on Wonder Woman's and repeatedly pulverizes Pelosi's head with her forearm. The video also shows a plane flying a banner reading "PELOSI FOR PRISON." In the clip, Lorraine calls the Speaker a communist and "the head of the snake."
In other words, by 2020 standards, Lorraine is a mainstream Republican.
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