Anthony Fauci lets loose on 'infinitely lying' Trump in COVID diary

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 top infectious disease expert 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 evolving relationship with Trump, his eventual animosity toward the president and astonishment about his own personal fame are revealed in more than 1,100 pages of diary entries Fauci kept as director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. Sen. Rand Paul, R-Kentucky, a longtime Fauci critic, released the documents ahead of Fauci's scheduled July 29 appearance under subpoena before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, which Paul chairs. While the pandemic raged, Fauci accused Trump multiple times in his diary of not taking scientific advice about the pandemic seriously in the president's push to reopen the country from lockdowns for political reasons ahead of the 2020 election. USA TODAY is quoting from the diary as written, 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." Entries released from Fauci's diary ‒ which was kept electronically on a computer, not written by hand ‒ span from December 2019 to December 2022. Paul obtained the journal through a subpoena as part of his committee's investigation into the origins of COVID-19. Trump initially embraced Fauci in the months after the pandemic hit the United States in early 2020, during Trump's final year in office. He often gave 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 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." 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 complained about the former president and the "vicious assault" on himself 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."