Writing in the Washington Post this Thursday, Greg Sargent takes a look at the Trump's administration's recent walkback of its attempts to undermine its top infectious disease expert, Dr. Anthony Fauci, after they discovered that it wasn't being received by the public so well.
According to Sargent, President Trump's "new scam" is to present the image that his administration actually respects Fauci's advice while continuing to undermine him behind the scenes.
"What’s really going on here is a kind of two-step, a double game," Sargent writes. "Trump and his advisers want him to reap the political benefits of appearing to harbor general respect for Fauci’s expertise, while simultaneously continuing to undermine Fauci’s actual claims about the threat the novel coronavirus will continue to pose — because those claims badly undermine Trump’s reelection message."
Trump motivation for undermining his top infectious disease expert is clear: Fauci doesn't hold back when communicating how serious the ongoing pandemic is -- a hard truth that undermines Trump's reelection message. According to Trump, America is roaring back to greatness, and that's the storyline that Fauci is dramatically undercutting. According to Sargent, we can expect to see this "double game" continue.
"Trump and his advisers will keep working to create the general impression that he respects the expertise of his health officials, while continuing to cast doubt on what those experts are actually saying about what the future holds, and how terribly dark it now looks."
Read the full op-ed over at The Washington Post.
