In Dr. Anthony Fauci’s new book being released tomorrow, “On Call: A Doctor’s Journey in Public Service,” the longtime scientist described his relationship with Donald Trump as president “complicated.”
Of the 450 pages, about 70 are devoted to Trump. In the chapter titled, “He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not,” Dr. Fauci described how Trump repeatedly told him he “loved” him, while at the same time excoriating him with tirades filled with F-bombs.
In one June 2020 phone call from Trump, TFG unleashed his fury on him for saying the virus’ vaccine was unlikely to provide lifetime protection and would probably require boosters.
“It was quite a phone call,” Fauci writes. “The president was irate, saying that I could not keep doing this to him. He said he loved me, but the country was in trouble, and I was making it worse. “He added that the stock market went up only six hundred points in response to the positive phase 1 vaccine news and it should have gone up a thousand points and so I cost the country ‘one trillion fucking dollars.’
Fauci may anger Trump even more by revealing that Trump actually apologized to him, albeit via an intermediary. Fauci added that he felt Trump was competing with him in terms of public profile and acceptance.
Fauci had served under seven presidents, through various infectious diseases including AIDS, swine flu, anthrax, and Ebola, but it took the coronavirus pandemic to become a polarizing public figure, and a target of Republicans and Trump supporters.
But the Trump White House was special, not least because of its passing relationship with the truth. Trump, he wrote, “shocked me on Day 1 of his presidency, with his disregard of facts such as the size of the crowd at his inauguration” and his “aggressive disrespect for the press.”
Fauci also referred to Mike Pence as abnormally deferential to The Boss.
“Vice presidents are almost always publicly loyal to the president. That is part of the job. But in my opinion, Vice President Pence sometimes overdid it,” he wrote. “During task force meetings, he often said some version of, ‘There are a lot of smart people around here, but we all know that the smartest person is upstairs.’”
Fauci described his last conversation with TFG.
At 9:30 a.m. on Sunday, Nov. 1, 2020, Fauci writes, he was at home when Trump called from Air Force One.
Trump told him that everyone wanted him to be fired. Trump explained that he had too illustrious of a career to do that, but he needed Fauci to be positive, to give people something to hope for — as Fauci had told the Washington Post two days before the election that the country was still in for a lot of hurt with Covid.
Trump continued:
“I am going to win this election by a fucking landslide. Just wait and see. I always did things my way. And I always win, no matter what all these other fucking people think. And that fucker Biden. He is so fucking stupid. I am going to kick his fucking ass in this election.”
“Love me, love me not,” Fauci writes, dryly.