Dr Anthony Fauci has become a hero of the American left. But he should have known better than to outshine Trump

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Anthony Fauci has become America’s doctor. He’s also become a countervailing breeze to Donald Trump’s hurricane-force winds, making him the latest savior of the political left.

So bright is the federal government’s top infectious disease official’s star burning during the coronavirus pandemic that he was asked recently if he should be in the running for sexiest man alive. “Sexy” is not an adjective that comes to mind when this reporter thinks of Fauci, but the mere question says a lot about his newfound celebrity.

Americans seem to appreciate his Brooklyn-bred straight talk. Those on the left often take things one step further, portraying him as an almost saintly figure. But Fauci does not claim membership of any of the tribes that now dominate American politics.

“It’s proven time and time again: stick with the science, stay completely out of the politics,” he recently told Vanity Fair. “I have no ideology. My ideology is health, public health, and science. You do that. You can make it uncomplicated. If you get involved in political rhetoric, then it gets complicated.”

Several Washington insiders this week noted that Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, sees himself as a medical authority and the leading voice in his field. So it’s natural that he is doing a slew of media interviews, eager to get his data- and science-based messages out to as many people as he can.

Fair enough. A noble undertaking. With Trump whipsawing between policy positions and rewriting history every evening during his coronavirus press conferences, somebody’s got to do it. Or at least try.

The trouble is that nothing in the age of Trump is “uncomplicated,” as the doctor described his approach to all things health.

So even though Fauci does indeed avoid political rhetoric, every word he utters is compared to those of the president. And everything Trump-related becomes political.

In such a dynamic, can even a well-meaning, truth-telling pro’s pro like Anthony Fauci avoid being silenced? There simply is no other Trump administration official past or present to point to as a survivor of a celebrity competition with the president.

And, to be sure, the good doctor’s star is burning much brighter than that The Donald.

Fauci has told interviewers he does not concern himself much with the false or misleading things Trump says during his daily press conferences. He says his focus becomes correcting the record as soon as possible. That’s typically, for him, during a morning television interview.

Sometimes, Fauci’s straight-talking television tour irks the president. Trump earlier this week shared a tweet that called for the doctor’s firing, prompting hours of Washington scuttlebutt that the president would push out Fauci or at least blacklist him from federal anti-pandemic efforts – and, perhaps most importantly to Trump, ban him from the television circuit.

There can be no bigger celebrity in this White House and administration than the former reality show star. (He happens to be the boss.)

That means we are back to a central conundrum of the Trump era, and at the worst possible time: When does one stop being a truth-teller and start being a sideshow who distracts the president from countering, in his words, an “invisible enemy”?

Fauci tiptoes up to that line almost daily, and sometimes crosses it.

He even had a Trumpian moment on Monday evening when he clashed with CBS News White House correspondent Paula Reid. After he’d taken time to clean up his own mess from the day before — explaining he mistakenly fell for a “hypothetical” question while also using a “wrong choice of words” — Reid, who seems to get under the skin of Trump and his nightly cast of anti-Covid warriors, asked the doctor why he mentioned getting some pushback from the White House on his preferred approach.

“There wasn't anybody saying ‘no, you shouldn't do that’,” the normally congenial Fauci shot back.

The persistent Reid kept going, inquiring why Fauci was at the lectern so early in the briefing to mop up his mess: “Are you doing this voluntarily or did the president…?”

In a moment typically reserved for Trump’s almost daily sparring with reporters, Fauci did not give her time to finish, snapping back: “No, I am doing it, everything I do is voluntary. Please don't even imply that.”

The doctor’s mouth said “please” but the look he shot her way was certainly not medicinal. It was ripped straight out of the media-bashing president’s prescription book.

There have been other straight shooters in this White House who gained fame and what passes for widespread respect these days. The political left fell in love with almost all of them, placing upon their shoulders the gargantuan hope that the perceived truth in their words would either bring down this presidency or cause Trump’s supporters to finally just see what they see.

James Comey. Robert Mueller. James “Mad Dog” Mattis. John Kelly. Even the typically talkative John Bolton.

They all have one thing in common: These truth-telling liberal heroes faded, unable to slow the Trump express as it speeds down the track towards a second term. Liberals should avoid lulling themselves into the delusion that just a few more Fauci hits on CNN will doom the president come Election Day.

Their latest star is outshining Donald Trump. These cosmic icons of the left never shine brightly for very long – but Trump just keeps blazing an unprecedented trail as the white-hot sun at the centre of American politics.