Your beef is with Pence and the rest of the swamp. If this wasn't led by Fauci, it would have been led by some other 'I am the science' type. Our institutions are filled to the brim with those types. That's not even arguable.
This forum is full of people with outstanding hindsight. Some even consider themselves 'experts' and no doubt would have breezed through that whole charade better than Trump.
That’s complete and utter bullshit. Trump put Pence in charge of the task force. Trump held press conferences every day with Fauci where he let Fauci run the show. Trump took Fauci’s advice and followed it to the letter. Trump did those things. No amount of blaming the swamp will make that untrue.
At the time, of course, we didn’t know what COVID was or how to fight it, so I don’t look at much of what happened during the spring and summer of 2020 and “blame” anyone, but those things happened and the fact that Fauci was front and center is 100% on Trump.