President Trump lucked out by having Anthony Fauci around to be the foremost face of the White House’s Coronavirus Task Force.
Fauci, who was first appointed as the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases in 1984, has a long record of experience that includes helping lead the early research on AIDS.
By providing a credible face to the response, Fauci is, at the moment, helping him win reelection.
The RealClearPolitics average approval rating for the president is at around 44%, a consistent rating throughout his presidency and a miraculous feat right now considering the administration has not proven itself particularly competent at managing the biggest crisis of Trump’s first term.
But any credit that the administration deserves in assuring the public and calming its panic almost solely goes to Fauci. He’s been consistently straightforward about the severity of the virus’s spread and realistic about what everyone can and should do to prepare for it.
I know that’s not sufficient for Trump, who needs his monkeys to perform, so Fauci comes with the added bonus of not outright contradicting Trump’s leadership and even speaking highly of his boss.
“He has a very unique style,” Fauci said of Trump in an interview Sunday with the Atlantic. “But the thing that encourages me is that every time I’ve asked him to do something — cut out China travel, or go to the mitigation guidelines — he’s always ultimately listened to what I’ve said. When I’ve said, I really think we should do this, he’s never said no and overruled my recommendation. No matter what his style is, when it comes to the core of what gets done, thankfully, he has listened to me.”
Well, that’s not the same thing as Fauci saying he’d take a bullet for the president, but Trump should right now take what he can get.
The 2020 campaign didn’t stop because of the virus. Trump knows that. He should also know that Fauci is helping him win it.
