Tony's Diary Package — page 53

Put another way: Very plainly, Trump needs Fauci more than Fauci needs Trump. This is not a position Donald Trump has ever felt comfortable in-- witness the denouement with Mattis. 2. The ability not to abase himself before Trump. The first Cabinet meeting Donald Trump held, nearly three years ago, was unlike any other conducted in U.S. history, and very much like subsequent public appearance of Trump in company with his appointees. In that meeting, on June 12, 2017, as TV cameras were rolling, Trump went around the table and one-by-one had his appointees gush about how kind, wise, and far-sighted he was-- failing only to compliment him on his humility. (Tina Nguyen described the meeting at the time in Vanity Fair.) After praising himself, Trump called on others to praise him, starting with the reliable Mike Pence. "It is the greatest privilege of my life to serve as the vice president to a president who is keeping his word to the American people," Pence began. All the others followed his example--with the prominent exception of Mattis. He spent his "praise" time instead complimenting the men and women in uniform he led. No public event like that Cabinet meeting had happened before in the United States, simply because no other president has been as needy for in-public adulation as Trump is. Of course most politicians and all presidents are needy; you could not run for the presidency if you had a normal temperament. (Background reading on this point, while you're "socially isolating": Robert Penn Warren's All the King's Men.) Every political leader eats up the praise in private--"Wonderful job today, Mr. President--you were really connecting!", not to mention Veep--but all the rest of them have been savvy enough to know how tacky this looks in public. The modern exceptionillustrating-the-rule might have been Lyndon Johnson, with enough of the Sun King in his makeup to enjoy having people humble themselves before him. But holding a public adulation-fest? If George W. Bush had heard, say, Karl Rove start in that way, he would likely have said, "OK, Turd Blossom, what are you angling for?" Barack Obama--or John F. Kennedy, or Jimmy Carter-- would have arched an eyebrow as if to ask,