If you’ve been watching the news, then you’ll have heard about president Donald Trump’s statement in response to Dr. Anthony Fauci’s call to increase healthy safety measures in light of the continuing coronavirus pandemic. According to Trump, Dr. Fauci is being “a little bit of an alarmist”, and if you listen to his reasoning he might not be off base.
For a while now, rumors have been circulating that president Trump and Dr. Fauci’s relationship has been strained. But, the president made certain to dismiss any implications that his administration might be trying to discredit Fauci, who happens to be the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.
In an interview with President Trump, Fox New Sunday Host Chris Wallace asked POTUS to respond to a Facebook post made by Daniel Scavino, deputy chief of staff for White House communications.
The post called Fauci an “alarmist” and a “leaker”, to which President Trump responded that he wasn’t aware of Dr. Fauci being a leaker but he admitted that he can be “a little bit of an alarmist” which isn’t always a bad thing.
President Trump added that he recently spoke to Dr. Fauci who has made his fair share of mistakes in the handling of the coronavirus crisis.
Of course, we all remember that at the beginning of the pandemic back in March, he dismissed any claims of the virus being a serious pandemic-level pathogen and even chastised the president for banning China. As it turns out, president Trump was right to ban travel from and to China at the critical time when he did, even if his actions were misunderstood at the time.
President Trump also noted that early on Dr. Fauci advised against the use of masks by the general public, especially N95 masks which were in short supply for health professionals. Recently Dr. Fauci has become a strong advocate for face coverings, despite the fact that this hasn't yet been made a federal mandate.
Until recently, president Trump followed Dr. Fauci’s earlier advice by not wearing a mask, causing many of his supporters to follow suit. However, Dr. Fauci has since changed his tune to the point where he’s now recommending governors to apply forceful measures in ensuring that everyone wears a mask.
It’s clear from the interview that president Trump and his administration haven’t been involved in a discrediting campaign against Dr. Fauci. This follows claims made by Dr. Fauci that the Trump administration had been making bizarre attacks on him which he viewed as damaging to the president.
In a statement made to the Atlantic, Dr. Fauci said, 'I cannot figure out in my wildest dreams why they would want to do that,' noting that the attacks only cast a negative reflection on his detractors instead, who are presumably part of the president’s administration and White House staff.
