Fauci expressed disillusionment with 'rambling, crazy' Trump in journal

Diary entries released by a Republican senator in an attempt to damage Anthony Fauci also show the former top US government science adviser's growing disillusionment with Donald Trump in the first year of the Covid-19 pandemic, branding the president "rambling", "crazy", "desperate", "bumbling", "incompetent", "an idiot", "a true embarrassment", "totally nuts" and "truly an obnoxious adolescent". On 27 February 2020, amid the first stirrings of public alarm, he wrote of a surprise late-night call, in which the US president "wanted to chat about the coronavirus situation in general". For "about 20-25 minutes", Fauci wrote, he "encouraged [Trump] not to underplay the seriousness of the situation since if it turns out bad, it would look like he is covering up. I even spoke to him from a political standpoint that his chances for re-election might be more damaged if he downplayed the potential spread of virus in the USA than if he said we may face serious problems and even if the Stock Market goes down further, he was at least honest and the country would respect him for it. I thought that he heard what I said, but the next day, he again underplayed it." By 14 March, in the thick of the first Covid shutdowns, Fauci is bemoaning Trump's fixation on "the fluff of ratings and publicity. And so he wants us to do 2 press conferences/day -- one in AM and one in PM ... We now will have no time to do work." On 22 May, Fauci wrote that Trump is "getting out of control in pushing to open up the country and get the economy back before election day. He is desparate [sic]. This is all about re-election." In October 2020, Fauci wrote: "As the [presidential] 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." By March 2021, Fauci writes: "He is truly an obnoxious adolescent." Fauci's diary entries read as raw source material for reporting on the pandemic and its politics. The release of Fauci's diaries was orchestrated by Rand Paul, the Republican senator from Kentucky, who has long voiced skepticism about the Covid-19 response Fauci led. The two men have clashed before. At a hearing in January 2022, for example, Fauci told Paul his attacks put him in danger, "kindl[ing] the crazies out there and I have threats upon my life, harassment of my family and my children with obscene phone calls because people are lying about me." Fauci also charged: "You are making a catastrophic epidemic for your political gain."