Anthony Fauci is Donald Trump
Our leaders, populist and elite alike, refuse to admit their mistakes.
Anthony Fauci and Donald Trump are very different people: in their mannerisms, in their beliefs, and in the company they keep. They are not, however, very different kinds of leaders. The similarities between the two become more obvious with time. Each one is deeply confident in his abilities—a confidence that easily shades into arrogance. Both of them crave attention and affirmation, especially from those sitting high atop their preferred social ladders.
Neither one seems to occupy a mental universe in which it is possible they’re wrong. They neither admit nor apologize. At the very most, they may change course when cornered, but this change never means they were wrong to begin with. It means either that untrustworthy people led them to this place or else that the mass of humanity cannot yet comprehend or appreciate their genius. Both Fauci and Trump have an army of full-time critics, many of whom make good and important points, but too many of whom seem to have made such criticism their entire personality and worldview.
In fairness to Fauci, his record consists not of eight years of presidency, but of one to two years of real but limited power during the COVID lockdowns. But Fauci, with help, crammed an impressive amount of failure into a limited window. His testimonies before Congress have been earnest, and I do not doubt that Fauci himself believes to this day that all of his recommendations, assurances, insistences, and rhetoric during COVID were still the best anyone could do. But if sincerity is not a measure of truth for people who start wars with Iran, neither is it for people who want to keep schools and churches closed indefinitely.
