A recent Quinnipiac Poll found that a majority of Americans, 65 percent say they trust the information coming from Dr. Anthony Fauci on the coronavirus while only 30 percent say they trust the information coming from Trump.
This is clearly weighing heavily on Donald Trump as the nation’s death toll from the coronavirus approaches 150,000. During Tuesday’s briefing at the White House, Trump questioned why Dr. Fauci’s approval rating is higher than his for the handling of the coronavirus pandemic.
“It’s interesting: he’s got a very good approval rating. And I like that, it’s good. Because remember: he’s working for this administration. He’s working with us. We could have gotten other people. We could have gotten somebody else. It didn’t have to be Dr. Fauci. He’s working with our administration. And for the most part we’ve done what he and others — and Dr. Birx and others… have recommended.”
“And he’s got this high approval rating. So why don’t I have a high approval rating with respect — and the administration — with respect to the virus? We should have it very high,” Trump wondered out loud.
“So it sort of is curious,” Trump said, “a man works for us, with us, very closely, Dr. Fauci and Dr. Birx also, very highly thought of — and yet, they’re highly thought of, but nobody likes me?. It can only be my personality, that’s all.”
This comes after Trump’s Monday night tweetstorm where he retweeted an attack on Dr. Fauci from his former White House counselor Steve Bannon. Bannon accused Fauci of misleading the American people. But, at Tuesday’s briefing, Trump insisted that he “get along with him [Dr. Fauci] very well and I agree with a lot of what he’s said.”
