Diary entries from Anthony Fauci, released by Republican Senator Rand Paul, document the former top U.S. government science adviser’s growing private frustration with Donald Trump during the first year of the Covid-19 pandemic. The entries, spanning from early 2020 through March 2021, contain critical characterizations of the president, including descriptions such as “rambling,” “crazy,” “desperate,” “bumbling,” “incompetent,” “an idiot,” “a true embarrassment,” “totally nuts,” and “truly an obnoxious adolescent.”
According to the diary entries, Fauci documented challenging interactions with Trump from the outbreak’s earliest stages. In a February 2020 entry, Fauci described a late-night call in which he advised the president to avoid downplaying the pandemic’s severity, warning that public perception of a cover-up could damage his re-election prospects. Fauci noted that despite these discussions, Trump continued to minimize the situation the following day. By March, Fauci expressed concern about Trump’s demand for multiple daily press conferences, which he said left insufficient time for substantive pandemic response work.
As the pandemic progressed and 2020 approached, Fauci’s entries reflected increasing alarm about Trump’s motivations. In May, Fauci characterized the president’s push to reopen the economy as driven by re-election concerns rather than public health considerations. By October, as cases surged heading into the election, Fauci described Trump as “out of control” and “a true embarrassment” while campaigning.
The diary release was orchestrated by Rand Paul, a Kentucky Republican who has long expressed skepticism regarding Fauci’s pandemic response and the government’s Covid-19 policies. Paul has disputed Fauci’s accounts of the virus’s origins, contending instead that human-made origins were covered up, though Fauci and mainstream scientific consensus point to animal-to-human transmission. The two have previously clashed publicly, with Fauci stating that Paul’s criticism prompted threats against him and his family. Both men are scheduled to face off Wednesday at a congressional hearing.
Fauci acknowledged in his diary that he had provided information to journalist Bob Woodward for a book on the pandemic response, and expressed concern about being suspected as a leaker. Notably, some coverage of the released diaries has focused on Fauci’s reflections on his increased public prominence during the pandemic, with references to celebrity encounters and media appearances.
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