Billionaire Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates opened up on his recent meeting with President Donald Trump and his thoughts on Elon Musk’s involvement with the new administration.
Gates was interviewed on NBC’s “Today” show on Tuesday and was asked by host Savannah Guthrie about his recent meeting with President Trump at Mar-a-Lago to discuss his philanthropic endeavors through the Gates Foundation, which aims to fight poverty and disease around the world.
“The Gates Foundation works on saving lives, and the U.S. government has been an incredible partner, buying HIV medicine to keep tens of millions of people alive. And there’s so much innovation that can be done, you know, a vaccine for HIV,” Gates said.
“So I went to see President Trump to say, ‘Look, we both believe in saving lives. What can we do to accelerate innovation?’” he explained. “With the COVID vaccine, he did accelerate the availability of that.”
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Guthrie asked if Gates felt like Trump was just placating him by saying he was receptive to the idea and whether he’s still hopeful after the president signed executive orders withdrawing the U.S. from the World Health Organization and Elon Musk shutting down USAID.
“I’m still hopeful. I think all Americans can agree that keeping people alive for very little money, we should be proud of that. It started back with President [George W.] Bush. There’s some disruption going on now, and I want to engage positively to get things back on track,” the Microsoft co-founder said.
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Guthrie asked Gates about his comments criticizing Musk’s involvement with far-right politicians overseas as being “insane s—” and whether he’s comfortable with Musk wielding power as the head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
“Well I admire the great private sector stuff he’s done — you know, SpaceX, Tesla, both amazing companies. I think in the case of USAID, he doesn’t appreciate the phenomenal work that goes on. It’s not partisan work,” Gates said, noting its work on promoting nutrition around the world.
Guthrie noted that Musk said that USAID is “beyond repair,” and Gates responded that his philanthropic work has given him a closer perspective of the agency’s work, which Musk may not be fully aware of.
“I give billions of dollars to the same thing that USAID does,” Gates said. “I go out in the field and study these things. I hire scientists, and so I think if he really knew the work there, he wouldn’t be telling 10,000 people to not come and do that work.”
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