When a person is worth billions of dollars, they are going to be in the news regularly. This is especially true if they are part of something set up by the president, as is the case with Elon Musk.
After Donald Trump was sworn in on January 20, many things changed in the United States and globally. Undoubtedly, we have seen those changes over the past 100 days or so.
This included executive orders that made changes to the United States and also affected the world. Many of them were packed with controversy, and some rightly so.
One of the things that made news very early on in his second term was when Pres. Donald Trump put his billionaire friend, Elon Musk, at the head of the newly enacted Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). He was then given the task to save money and reduce the federal workforce.
There has been much controversy surrounding what Musk has done, and another billionaire is now stepping forward to speak his mind. It is none other than Bill Gates, the founder of Microsoft.
Bill Gates has not been shy about being critical of Elon Musk and his initiatives of cutting costs under DOGE. He even went so far as to accuse him of ‘killing the world’s poorest children’.
DOGE has been responsible for a reduction in the workforce of a number of agencies and departments. This includes some that deal with foreign aid initiatives. In February, Musk called the US Agency for International Development (USAID) a criminal organization and said that it was ‘time for it to die’.
At the time, USAID was the largest donor of humanitarian aid and had a staff of about 10,000. More than $40 billion was given worldwide in 2023 to those who needed it.
That didn’t stop Musk from announcing that it would be closed down. He saw it as something standing in the way of improving federal funding, and he was lashing out at it.
At the time, he said: “It became apparent that it’s not an apple with a worm it in. What we have is just a ball of worms. You’ve got to basically get rid of the whole thing.”
Gates was not happy, saying that doing these things to reduce US development overseas was not right. The Microsoft co-founder spoke to the Financial Times, saying: “The picture of the world’s richest man killing the world’s poorest children is not a pretty one.”
He spoke about the severe reduction in life-saving medicine and food supplies that were now expiring in warehouses while countries were struggling with diseases, including HIV, measles, and polio. The billionaire accused Musk of canceling aid to a hospital in Gaza, one that stops women from passing HIV to their newborn children.
This was done under a false claim that the US was passing out condoms to Hamas in that area.
Gates spoke about Musk, saying: “I’d love for him to go in and meet the children that have now been infected with HIV because he cut that money.”
This isn’t the first time that Gates had a problem with what Musk was doing. In 2012, Musk signed a Giving Pledge along with dozens of other billionaires who said that at least half of their wealth would be given away. He did so, even though he told Gates that the initiative was Bull****.
Gates is also gearing up to close the Gates Foundation in 2045 and is trying to spend his fortune to do so. He plans on spending $200 billion on global health, development, and education. His mission is to eradicate diseases through child health, curing HIV, and vaccines.
He also said that his private efforts are falling fall short of what USAID was able to do, as they gave $44 billion last year.
In the end, Gates said: “People will say a lot of things about me when I die, but I am determined that ‘he died rich’ will not be one of them. There are too many urgent problems to solve.”
