The leading medical adviser’s new memoir reveals that Donald Trump yelled foul-mouthed misuse at Anthony Fauci before convincing him he loved him and that he would win the 2020 election by a “fucking landslide.”
In the joyfully awaited text, Fauci describes conversations with Trump during the COVID- 19 crisis, during which the then-president had “announce his love for me and then cry at me on the telephone.”
” Come only say, I found this to be out of the ordinary”, Fauci writes, of discussions peppered with f- bombs, including the state Fauci had cost the U. S. business “one trillion stupid dollars”.
The book, On Call: A Doctor’s Journey in Public Service, may be published in the U. S. next week—as Trump and President Joe Biden‘s fight gathers speed. A version was obtained from The Daily Beast.
On the page, Fauci describes interactions with Trump as the administration wrestled with the president’s opposition to public health measures including masking, Trump’s desire to resume the country, his indulgence of advisers with uncertain qualifications pushing unproven treatments, his crazy suggestion that bleach may destroy the virus, and, unfortunately, his personal hospitalization with COVID.
Fauci, a veteran director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases ( NIAID), tried to make sense of Trump’s fluctuating statements while balancing his own medical expertise. He retired in 2022 as Biden’s chief medical advisor. The New York Post reported in March of last year that Fauci had sold his memoir for” just under$ 5 million.” Crown Publishing, a Penguin Random House imprint, said that figure was inaccurate.
In 2020, within weeks of the first COVID cases, Fauci became a Republican punching bag. Enemies saw him as an avatar of the medical establishment when he relentlessly urged COVID precautions, starting with social distancing, moving to lockdowns, then masking and vaccines.
He claimed to have received death threats to himself, his wife, and his adult daughter in Congress this month. He was given a full-fledged security detail during the pandemic.
Anti-Fuci demonstrators demonstrate in New York City in June 2021.
Jeenah Moon/Getty
In his book, Fauci reports his last conversation with Trump, in which Trump said he would win re- election” by a fucking landslide” against Biden, whom he deemed “fucking stupid”.
Now 83, Fauci writes of a life that took him from an apartment above his father’s pharmacy in Brooklyn, New York, to the White House and the world stage. As NIAID director, he worked for every president from Ronald Reagan to Biden.
Fauci was on the front line of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, worked against Ebola, and ultimately became the chief scientific face of the U. S. attempt to combat COVID, which has now killed nearly 1.2 million Americans.
Such work involved working with a disorderly administration and a volatile president who stoked virulent right-wing animosity over public health policies like masking, social distancing, and ultimately mandates for vaccines.
On both sides of the aisle, Fauci’s descriptions of their interactions, as well as his work with a Biden administration, which he claims has a “parallel universe” in terms of its focus on COVID, will be eagerly read.
Describing the frightening early days of the pandemic, as large swathes of U. S. society were shut down and economic and physical damage mounted, Fauci writes of his” first experience]of] the brunt of the president’s rage”.
” On the evening of June 3]2020], my cell phone rang”, Fauci writes,” and the caller—the president —started screaming at me”.
Trump was offended by Fauci’s claim to be immune to coronaviruses was “typically six months to a year,” which meant that booster shots would likely be required if a COVID- 19 vaccine was discovered.
Fauci points out that this was a common practice for viruses like the flu and that his comment was “wrongly reported on Twitter and in some media outlets as the Covid vaccine protecting people only for a very short time.”
Trump did not like what he heard.
” It was quite a phone call”, Fauci writes. The president was furious, saying that I could n’t continue to treat him this way. He said he loved me, but the country was in trouble, and I was making it worse.
He continued,” I cost the country one trillion fucking dollars because 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.”
” I have a pretty thick skin”, Fauci writes,” but getting yelled at by the president of the United States, no matter how much he tells you that he loves you, is not fun”.
Fauci may take the chance of infuriating Trump once more by describing the conversation as having a” trump told me, via an intermediary,” Trump is infamously anti-apologetic.
Fauci says he was “mystified” but “resolved not to let]the call ] throw me off my game”.
Trump, however,” seemed to feel competitive” with Fauci, in terms of public profile and acceptance.
Eventually, Fauci describes “what turned out to be my last conversation with President Trump”.
At 9: 30 a. m. on Sunday, Nov. 1, 2020, Fauci writes, he was at home when Trump called from Air Force One.
” Tony”, Trump said,” I really like you, and you know that, but what the fuck are you doing? You really need to be positive. You constantly bomb me.
Trump was upset about Fauci telling The Washington Post that the United States was still “in for a whole lot of hurt” two days before the election. The COVID case count was 9 million, with 230, 000 dead.
” Everybody wants me to fire you”, Trump said. ” But I am not going to fire you, you have too illustrious a career, but you have to be positive. The nation cannot remain encircled.
” You have to give them hope… I like you, but so many people—not only in the White House, but throughout the country —hate you because of what you are doing.”
Fauci describes threats in his book, including the terrifying wait before the all-clear.
Trump was obstinate about winning a second term. On Nov. 1, he continued:” I am going to win this election by a fucking landslide. Just wait and see. I always carried out my plans. And I always triumph, despite 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.”
Trump eventually ended the 15- minute rant by saying”, Okay, Tony, I will see you in a couple of days. Take care.”
” Love me, love me not,” Fauci writes, dryly.
In March 2020, Dr. Deborah Birx and Anthony Fauci take a listening berth during a briefing.
The Washington Post/Getty
Three days later, Trump lost the election to Biden—but did not concede. He continued to be in office, but he never spoke to Fauci again.
Describing meetings with Biden, the president- elect, Fauci writes of” a no- nonsense person guided by integrity and empathy “who” clearly was in charge” and would eventually return the White House” to its pre- Trump normal, “despite deepening political schisms in the U. S. at large.
On Dec. 22, 2020, as Biden prepared to become president, Fauci went on TV—to receive the first COVID vaccine.
” An alcohol swab, a little pinch as the needle went in, a Band- Aid and it was done, “he writes”. The best gift I could possibly give was the knowledge that millions of Americans would soon be vaccinated as I had just been two days before my eighty-eighth birthday.
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