When Dr. Anthony Fauci was tapped to be a member of the Trump administration’s coronavirus task force, worrying about finding effective ways to help the nation deal with the deadly pandemic wasn’t his biggest problem. No, his biggest problem was dealing with an inept president who basically threw sick people under the bus while trying to appease his supporters and improve his standing in the presidential election, Alternet reports.

Now the good doctor can breathe easier, but the situation turned very dark when Trump suddenly refused to allow him to do his job.

In an interview with the Daily Telegraph, Fauci said, in the beginning, he was able to influence  how the former president handled the pandemic but that changed when Trump started to “essentially act like there was no outbreak.”

According to political activist Peter Staley, the situation took a turn for the worse at the end of April into early May when Trump began responding to push back from his supporters who were against the pandemic lockdowns. Instead of cooperating with health officials in adapting effective mitigation procedures, he began siding with protesters and putting pressure on governors and state leaders to reopen the economy.

Fauci said he agrees with Staley’s account of the situation.

“My influence with [the president] diminished when he decided to essentially act like there was no outbreak and focus on re-election and opening the economy… That’s when he said ‘It’s going to go away, it’s magical, don’t worry about it,” Fauci said.

After that, Trump was all deaf ears.

“My direct influence on him was negligible,” Fauci said. “It became more conflictual than productive.” Fauci can talk freely now, but in the months leading up to the election and afterward, it was a different story for him and his former task force colleague, Dr. Deborah Birx. As the pandemic continued to spread rapaciously across the U.S. over the summer, he and Birx faded from view with the mainstream media.

Apparently, the situation went from bad to worse, even to the point, Fauci told Rachel Maddow, that Trump officials blocked him from appearing on her show.

“I’ve been wanting to come on your show for months and months,” he told Maddow. “you’ve been asking me to come on your show for months and months.”

Fauci didn’t mince any words in describing the situation.

“And it’s just gotten blocked. Let’s call it for what it is,” he said. “It just got blocked because they didn’t like the way you handle things and they didn’t want me on.”

Now that he’s free to give interviews again, he’s noted on several occasions that he’s definitely relieved not to have to work with the Trump administration again. Working with President Joe Biden has been “liberating” he said because Biden respects science.

Who can blame this intelligent man for feeling this way? It must have been terribly frustrating to try and do a job while the man you report to is listening to his idiot QAnon-believing, anti-vaxxer followers. Fauci has served as the head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases since 1984.

All I can say is it must have been like working for a bellicose, 74-year-old toddler. No wonder he’s relieved to be out of that situation.

Trump repeatedly defended his administration’s handling of the pandemic but it’s one of the biggest reasons he lost the election, political analysts say. As of Friday, Feb. 19, more than 28.5 million coronavirus cases have been reported in the U.S. and more than 500 thousand people have died.