Anthony Fauci: The one man Trump can’t afford to fire

The ‘tenacious’ doctor has become a minor celebrity of the coronavirus era, writes Sean O'Grady

‘Seen it all before’: Fauci has served under six presidents (Reuters)

In his official photograph as director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, Anthony S Fauci MD looks like something out of a typical hospital soap opera. As if from central casting, he wears spectacles, a warm smile and the obligatory white lab coat and brushed aluminium-look name badge. He looks as though you’ve just woken up on a ward and he’s there to tell you the operation was a success, but you’ll have to take things easy for a few days, and now get a little sleep. America must long for the day when he can declare something similar about Covid-19.

He is quite the cult figure these days, Fauci, thanks to his high-profile and sometimes controversial role as, in effect, America’s most senior doctor in the age of coronavirus. His frequent media appearances and up-and-down relationship with the president has spawned minor celebrity status. He must be flattered that Brad Pitt was chosen to play him in Saturday Night Live, and devoted fans of the public health expert can acquire a wide range of unofficial Fauci merch – or perhaps we should call it “merchi” – such as mugs, T-shirts and little bobble-head dolls. A new interview with InStyle, a fashion magazine, has him on the cover, sunny and dapper in his smart casuals, sitting by the pool. They’ve captioned him “The Good Doctor”, despite, or maybe because, America’s deaths from Covid-19 have reached 136,000, with 3.4 million cases and rising.

This gives you a clue as to why Donald Trump cannot fire his sometimes turbulent doctor, even if he was constitutionally allowed to do so. (Technically he is not and Trump would have to ask/make others do it for him.) Trump can, and has, dispensed with chiefs of staff, national security advisers, cabinet secretaries, an FBI director and many others, but the real reason Fauci is unsackable is that he is just too popular and important to ditch, even though Trump has made his displeasure with Fauci well known. With the second wave of coronavirus hammering Texas, Arizona, Florida and California, the nation looks to Fauci, not Trump, for truth and salvation.