Trump is losing his war with Anthony Fauci -- and he can't do anything about it: columnist

In her column for the Daily Beast, longtime political observer Margaret Carlson claimed Donald Trump is losing his war with Dr. Anthony Fauci in the eyes of the voting public and it has blown up in his face in the last days of the 2020 election.

Echoing the sentiments of former Democratic Senator Claire McCaskill (D-MO) who referred to the president as an "idiot" on Tuesday morning for battling with the popular doctor, Carlson said the juxtaposition of Fauci's "60 Minutes" interview with the president's recent ugly attacks on him aren't sitting well with voters.

As Carlson notes, Trump has already admitted that he can't fire Fauci, who she described as "... the mild-mannered epidemiologist who knows more about pandemics than just about anyone in the world except, of course, Trump," with obvious sarcasm.

With the president commenting on Fauci's television appearances, saying, "Every time he goes on television, there’s always a bomb, but there’s a bigger bomb if you fire him,” the columnist claimed that is a concession from the president that the doctor has him beat.

"For once Trump is telling the truth, about the firing part that is, and there’s a sheaf of polls in which Fauci’s approval swamps Trump’s to prove it. This flash of reality may mean Trump’s coming down from the steroids and won’t be arm-dancing to YMCA again, or maybe he just saw a clip of himself," she wrote. 

"Fauci has served six presidents with high honors, happily, until he met his seventh, which at best is a forced marriage. Trump doesn’t know what to make of a man like Fauci, happy with one wife, the hair God gave him, and a house without a hint of gold in a leafy, middle-class neighborhood. For decades he did an admirable job building an institution that’s the envy of the world," she wrote before adding " The wonder is that Trump thinks he got in a good one at Fauci when most of his punches now land on himself."

Adding, Trump "knows Fauci, twice as popular as he is, has to stay for now," Carlson argued that the doctor is likely lurking on the sidelines waiting for Trump to make his next move.

"Fauci, apolitical though he be, will surely be watching. He must know the awful truth that all the mask-wearing and hand-washing in all the world by people of goodwill who follow the rules can’t defeat the virus alone," she wrote before concluding, "That can only happen if Trump is defeated first."

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