Trump ridiculed Fauci as a "disaster" and an "idiot" who has been around for "500 years" -- trashing one of the nation's best hopes of easing the pandemic along with his recommendations to quell an alarming Covid-19 surge.

His personal warfare against Fauci on a frenzied day on the campaign trail, while indecent and questionable from a strategic political perspective, revealed how the US government effort to beat the pandemic has been suppressed in the service of Trump's reelection.

"Tony Fauci has been the most clear, consistent proponent of the measures the United States needs to protect itself from a deadly disease," William Haseltine, a renowned public health expert and former professor at Harvard Medical School, told CNN's Erin Burnett on Monday.

"What Donald Trump is doing is attacking the fire department when the house in burning down.

The doctor also wondered aloud in the interview why the President appeared to see mask wearing as a sign of weakness.

Ironically, while Trump spent Monday hammering Fauci, his campaign has used the doctor's image to falsely laud Trump's actions during the pandemic -- a step that infuriated the veteran doctor who has served six presidents and always strove to avoid the taint of partisanship.

Trump's rejection of Fauci, while embracing Atlas, a neuroradiologist and former Fox News fixture, also reflects the administration's habit of finding evidence that supports its political positions.

Deborah Birx, a senior member of the White House coronavirus task force, had asked Vice President Mike Pence to remove Atlas from the panel as he was not giving Trump sound advice.

He took new shots against NBC anchor Kristen Welker, who will chair the presidential debate in Nashville, Tennessee.

And he angrily rounded on a member of the White House press pool under the wing of Air Force One for not reporting that Biden is a "criminal." There is no evidence of criminal activity by the former vice president, who Trump falsely accuses of spying on his 2016 campaign.

But his venting against Fauci dominated one of the last days of a campaign in which Trump is trying to win over moderate and swing state voters.

Fauci, 79, has been America's top infectious disease specialist since the year Ronald Reagan won reelection.

Fauci should disregard any kind of media clearance from the White House and do whatever media he wants to do whenever he wants to do it," Reiner said.

I don't think the White House can fire Anthony Fauci two weeks before the election because he comes out to speak the truth."