Bill Gates took aim at President Donald Trump and Elon Musk during an interview with The New York Times, saying funding cuts to USAID will cause childhood deaths to increase. “On childhood deaths, which over the next few years should have gone from five million to four million — now, unless there’s a big reversal, we’ll probably go from five million to six million,” Gates said.
Earlier this year, Gates told The Wall Street Journal that he was “frankly impressed” with the interest Trump expressed in the issues Gates brought up during a three-hour-long dinner last December. Months later, Trump and government efficiency czar Musk tore into federal funding — a move that “rattled” the Gates Foundation, as reported by the Times.
“The reductions to U.S.A.I.D. are stunning,” Gates said during this latest interview. “I thought there’d be, like, a 20 percent cut. Instead, right now, it’s like an 80 percent cut. And yes, I did not expect that. I don’t think anybody expected that.”
In the interview, which coincides with Gates’ announcement that he plans to wind down the Gates Foundation over the next two decades, the Microsoft founder points to Musk for cutting the USAID’s budget. “He [Musk] put it in the wood chipper, because he didn’t go to a party that weekend,” Gates said.
Times reporter David Wallace-Wells then brings up Musk’s commitment to the Giving Pledge, to which Gates responds, “an unusual aspect of it [the Giving Pledge] that you can wait until you die and still fulfill it.” He adds, “So who knows? He could go on to be a great philanthropist. In the meantime, the world’s richest man has been involved in the deaths of the world’s poorest children.”
Now Gates says he plans to give away all his wealth through his foundation over the next 20 years “to the cause of saving and improving lives around the world.” The Gates Foundation will officially close on December 31st, 2045, when Gates’ net worth will have dropped by 99 percent.
