Election 2020

Trump is Very Upset That Dr. Fauci’s Approval Ratings are So Much Better Than His Own

Dr. Anthony Fauci has been blunt in his warnings about the dangers posed by the novel coronavirus and in doing so, has gained a high approval rating from many Americans. Much to the chagrin of President Donald Trump.

Unsurprisingly, this means the White House is taking broad steps to undermine Fauci’s message, The Washington Post and The New York Times report. White House aides are even stooping so low as to restrict his media appearances and releasing an opposition-research-style document that claims Fauci made “mistakes” during the beginning of the pandemic, Business Insider reports.

But at a Monday afternoon press conference, White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany was back to doing damage control again, insisting that the Trump administration hasn’t sent out “opposition research” to reporters. “Fauci and the president have a good working relationship,” she said.

According to the Post, however, Fauci and Trump haven’t spoken to each other since June and the president is “galled” by Fauci’s high approval ratings.

In a national poll of 1,337 registered voters, conducted by The New York Times and Siena College in June showed that 76 percent of respondents said they trusted Fauci for “accurate information” regarding the COVID-19 pandemic. A mere 26 percent said they trusted Trump.

So while the Trump administration is trying hard to discredit this man, I’m going to point out a few things. Fauci is the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases at the National Institutes of Health and is a member of the White House’s coronavirus task force. He’s worked for the federal government for more than 50 years and served six presidents while researching infectious diseases and was instrumental in the U.S.’s response to the AIDS crisis in the 1980s.

As the pandemic rages, Fauci, 79, has scored high marks from Americans because he tells it like it is and leaves no scientific uncertainties, often contradicting error-laden messages from Trump, who has tried to downplay the severity of the virus. Even a Fox News poll which came out around the same time as the Times/Siena College poll came out, from June 13-16, showed that voters also approved quite highly of Fauci, with 72 percent of all respondents (and 65 percent of Republicans among them) saying they approved of the good doctor’s handling of the pandemic. Trump, on the other hand, didn’t fare so well, with only 44 percent of those approving of how he handled this deadly situation.

Other polls show equally dismal ratings for Trump, including FiveThirtyEight, which shows that 57 percent of respondents disapprove of his handling of the coronavirus pandemic, while only 39 percent approve. And in March 18-19 ABC News Ipsos poll, Trump scored a net approval rating of 55 percent, while 43 said they disapproved of his handling. But that’s all changed as of the July 8-9 version of the very same poll, which shows 67 percent of respondents disapproved of the president’s handling of the pandemic, as compared to 33 percent who approved.

And Business Insider teamed up with SurveyMonkey in mid-March, mid-April, and late April. In these cases, respondents were asked to rate key officials on a scale from one to five regarding how trustworthy they were for leadership and accurate information on the virus.

In each of these surveys, respondents ranked Fauci and New York Governor Andrew Cuomo high marks for their handling of the pandemic. Meanwhile, Trump and his son-in-law Jared Kushner were ranked at the bottom.

Are you really surprised, especially since Trump is now calling the virus a hoax? He’s been stalling on doing anything to ameliorate this crisis. Who knows how many American lives he would have saved if he’d acted like a decent human being?  Something he’s rarely ever done while serving the highest office in the land.

meet the author

Megan has lived in California, Nevada, Arizona, Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Florida and she currently lives in Central America. Living in these places has informed her writing on politics, science, and history. She is currently owned by 15 cats and 3 dogs and regularly owns Trump supporters when she has the opportunity. She can be found on Twitter at https://twitter.com/GaiaLibra and Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/politicalsaurus

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