Trump's Gaslighting of Fauci Has Begun

Consider what I wrote exactly three months ago today:

One of the hallmarks of the Trump presidency is how he has cast his "best people" to the side and trashed them.

Exhibit #A: Trump deriding former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson as "dumb as a rock."

Exhibit #B: Trump describing former Secretary of Defense James Mattis as "the world's most overrated general."

Exhibit #C: Earlier this year, Trump claimed former White House Chief of Staff John Kelly as being "over his head."

How long will it be before NIAID Director and White House Coronavirus Task Force member Dr. Anthony Fauci becomes Exhibit #D?

On Sunday, Dr. Fauci told CNN's Jake Tapper that lives could have been saved had social distancing and other mitigation measures been adopted earlier and raised doubts that the COVID-19 pandemic would be resolved by this November's presidential election. I'm sure Trump is angrier at Fauci's comments regarding the election because he advocated conducting the election by mail - something Trump vociferously opposes even though he himself voted by mail last November.

No matter. Trump retweeted California GOP Congressional candidate DeAnna Lorraine's call to #FireFauci. As of this writing more than 22,000 Americans have died of COVID-19 and the President of the United States is giving legitimacy to firing a man for being competent and trustworthy.

Now that Trump has given this idea legitimacy it is only matter of time before Fauci is fired (or forced to resign) from the White House Coronavirus Task Force and perhaps his directorship of the NIAID, a position he's held since the Reagan Administration.

Exactly four months and more than 100,000 COVID-19 deaths later, the gaslighting of Dr. Fauci by the Trump White House has begun:

The White House is seeking to discredit Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s leading infectious disease expert, as President Donald Trump works to marginalize him and his dire warnings about the shortcomings in the U.S. coronavirus response.

In a remarkable broadside by the Trump administration against one of its own, a White House official told NBC News on Sunday that "several White House officials are concerned about the number of times Dr. Fauci has been wrong on things." To bolster the case, the official provided NBC News with a list of nearly a dozen past comments by Fauci earlier in the pandemic that the official said had ultimately proven erroneous.

Among them: Fauci's comments in January that coronavirus was "not a major threat" and "not driven by asymptomatic carriers" and Fauci’s comment in March that "people should not be walking around with masks."

It was a move more characteristic of a political campaign furtively disseminating "opposition research" about an opponent than of a White House struggling to contain a pandemic that has already killed more than 135,000 Americans, according to an NBC News tally.

President Trump has been completely ineffective when it comes to COVID-19. Trump wanted so desperately to believe the worst is behind us, that America is great again. But Dr. Fauci isn't playing ball and saying things aren't so great. So he must sleep with the fishes. 

Dr. Fauci's days with both the White House Coronavirus Task Force and the NIAID are numbered. His resignation or termination is coming soon - most likely on a Friday night.

Should Fauci's departure come to pass because of this gaslighting and the number of COVID-19 cases hits 100,000 per day as he recently predicted then I believe a fire will be lit under the American electorate which shall burn President Trump on November 3rd.