President Trump surprised the nation’s leading infectious disease expert with some praise for his past basketball career.
A reporter asked Fauci if either he or Deborah Birx, the response coordinator for the White House coronavirus task force, had received any threats or been given a security detail. Fauci deferred to the inspector general of the Department of Health and Human Services before President Trump jumped in.
“Everybody loves him,” the president said. “They’d be in big trouble if they ever attacked. You know, he was a great basketball player. Did anybody know that?”
“He was a little on the short side for the NBA, but he was talented,” Trump said as Fauci stood off to the side laughing.
“He won a game that was unwinnable against a great team, and his whole team said, ‘We can’t beat this team,’ and he went in, and they won the game, right?” Trump said while turning to Fauci. “That was a couple years ago.”
“A few years ago,” Fauci said.
“The head never changes. The attitude never changes,” Trump said about Fauci.
The president appeared to be referring to a Wall Street Journal article from Sunday that detailed how Fauci, as team captain, led his high school basketball team to an unlikely 1958 victory against another school despite having a 1-16 record that season.
