Fauci: Trump really believed COVID would “disappear like magic”

While speaking with MSNBC host Ari Melber on Tuesday, former White House chief medical adviser Dr. Anthony Fauci provided more insight into what it was like working under Donald Trump during the early days of the COVID- 19 pandemic, notably that the former president believed “it was going to disappear like magic.”

“[He thought] it's just going to go away because he so desperately wanted it to disappear the way flu disappears as you enter the end of the winter and the beginning of the spring,” Fauci said. “And that’s when I had to publicly get up, which was very uncomfortable for me. I was not happy about criticizing the president or disagreeing with the president. I said, ‘No, it’s not going to disappear like magic at all.’ And when that became clear, that’s when we started talking about hydroxychloroquine, which also was something that had no basis in science.”

According to Fauci, Trump got the idea that COVID could be treated with hydroxychloroquine — an off-patent antimalarial used for autoimmune diseases — from Fox News’ Laura Ingraham. This was despite warnings to the contrary from global health officials; eventually, according to Mediaite, the drug was linked to nearly 17,000 deaths across six countries during the pandemic.

“But I had to continue to tell the truth,” Fauci told Melbar. “And he said, ‘Why do you keep doing this to me?’ Because it’s the truth. I’m telling the American public the facts. Hydroxychloroquine doesn’t work.”