In Donald Trump's latest bizarre attack this week against Dr. Anthony Fauci, the president labeled the nation's top epidemiologist a "disaster" and an "idiot" just as Fauci's warnings about a resurgence of coronavirus infections are unfolding exactly as he predicted. It's increasingly apparent Trump is looking for a scapegoat as his polling numbers continue to sag, but urging Americans to disregard the top pandemic authority is worse than irresponsible.

The only valid response to this pandemic is reliance on sober science. Fauci must continue providing the clear-eyed expertise that has made him one of the most trusted people in America.

Trump, irked that the steady voice of fact-based science keeps contradicting his misinformation about the coronavirus, has been grumbling about Fauci for months. But on Monday, on a conference call with campaign staff and reporters, Trump unloaded. "People are tired of Covid," he said — true enough — but he pointed, nonsensically, to "the biggest rallies I've ever had" as evidence that "People are saying: 'Whatever. Just leave us alone.' They're tired of it." All that those mostly maskless rallies prove is that Trump doesn't care about the health of his most fervent supporters.

"People are tired of hearing Fauci and these idiots, all these idiots who got it wrong," said Trump. Polls suggest otherwise.

America is currently headed into the winter virus spike that Fauci has predicted for months, even as Trump has falsely claimed the crisis was nearing its end. "Every time (Fauci) goes on television, there's always a bomb," Trump complained. "But there's a bigger bomb if you fire him." Translation: I can't stand being upstaged by an actual expert, and I'd fire him if I could get away with it, because my ego is more important than the nation's well-being.

Even those who buy the strained theory that Trump's seemingly self-destructive stunts constitute some brilliant form of three-dimensional chess must have a hard time explaining this one. Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, enjoys close to a 70% approval rating as a "reliable source of information on the coronavirus," according Kaiser Family Foundation polling. The same poll showed Trump with a 40% approval rating - far higher than it should be, given his steady stream of dangerous disinformation. Attacking Fauci now, like this, reeks of such reckless desperation that it should be obvious even to Trump's blinkered base.

Fauci is that rarest of administration officials: competent, unwilling to bend reality for the boss, yet spared (so far) from a trip under the bus. For the sake of America's health, he must keep speaking truth to power. Should the nation's bellicose chief executive end up firing him for it, that would only spotlight the urgency of removing Trump from office in the coming election.

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