Trump might fire the one person in the White House who knows what he's doing

If he isn't careful, Dr. Anthony Fauci may end up the latest — and most high-profile — victim of President Trump's war on expertise. But Trump should beware. His own credibility in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic is already crumbling. Firing Fauci could undermine what confidence the public still has in his leadership.

The president's disdain for specialized knowledge, and the people who have it, is well-documented by now. Fauci, who has served as director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases since 1984, has become the face of governmental expertise during the coronavirus crisis. Trump wants to return the country, and the economy, to normalcy as quickly as possible. Fauci has warned that may not be so easy. This is a relationship that has been on track for a high-profile conflict — and that conflict may have arrived.

Trump signaled on Sunday that Fauci's tenure is in danger, retweeting a former Republican congressional candidate who used a #FireFauci hashtag and reportedly asking confidants what they think about the doctor. That came hours after Fauci appeared on CNN and seemed to confirm a New York Times report documenting six weeks of warnings about the coronavirus that the president ignored before finally taking significant action in March.

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"What goes into those kinds of decisions is complicated," Fauci told the network on Sunday. "But you're right. I mean, obviously, if we had, right from the very beginning, shut everything down, it may have been a little bit different. But there was a lot of pushback about shutting things down back then."

Fauci's careful "it is what it is" answer to Jake Tapper's question reflects a careful balance he has walked during the pandemic — an attempt to balance truth-telling and sound medical advice with a need not to ruffle the president's feathers. But Trump's feathers are easily ruffled, he never admits a mistake, and his Sunday tweet is the latest sign his patience with Fauci is wearing thin.

It is remarkable that Fauci has lasted this long.

The president's war on expertise has been a defining feature of his administration — his administration has disbanded scientific panels on air pollution, eliminated advisory committees, and worked to cut public health agencies, among other efforts. Some of this inclination is ideological: Conservatives have long wanted to crack down on the "administrative state" of bureaucrats and specialists who make the government run on a day-to-day basis, and the Trump presidency has provided them the opportunity. Some of it is personal: The president continues to cleanse executive branch agencies of career officials whose loyalty to him is suspect. And some of it is hubris: Trump somehow believes himself to be an expert on nearly every topic, even though there is considerable evidence otherwise.

"The experts are terrible," Trump said on the campaign trail in 2016. He has governed accordingly.

Fauci's new prominence, meanwhile, has made him a target of Trump's right-wing allies, who believe he has exaggerated the risks of the coronavirus and thus irresponsibly shut down the nation's economy. "Fauci is not an economist — or for that matter, someone who fears being unemployed," Fox's Tucker Carlson said on a recent show. Others, less kindly, have called Fauci a "stooge" of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

One other factor may endanger Fauci's job standing. A recent Quinnipiac poll shows the doctor has a 78 percent approval rating from the American public for his handling of the pandemic — just 7 percent of respondents gave him a negative review. Trump meanwhile is underwater in the same poll, with a 48 percent approval rating undermined by 51 percent who dislike the job he is doing. The president, we know, doesn't like being outshined.

But those numbers ought to give Trump pause if he really is thinking of firing Fauci. They indicate that the credibility of the federal government's response hinges a great deal on the public's belief that the experts still have a substantial say in how things are run. The alarmed "where's Fauci?" cries that go up whenever the doctor misses a coronavirus task force press briefing are another sign of the public's confidence in his knowledge and experience.

The president may disdain experts, but it is clear — more now, perhaps, than ever — that such specialists are needed to fight the pandemic and help guide America to its end. It is time President Trump call a ceasefire in his war on expertise, and let Dr. Fauci help see the country through this crisis.