Bill Gates is calling out fellow tech billionaire Elon Musk over cuts made to US government spending under his watch through the Department of Government Efficiency, saying the gutting of the US Agency for International Development (USAID) would lead to millions of deaths around the world.
The warning comes after the Trump administration took steps to dismantle USAID and halt its foreign assistance mission, with Musk bragging about feeding the agency to the “woodchipper.” In the weeks since, many non-profits have grappled with canceled contracts or sporadic payments, although some have since been restored amid warnings from aid organizations about the potentially deadly consequences of cutting the funding.
“When Elon went into government, if his thing really was about efficiency or using AI, you know, of course we need to make the government more efficient. If that’s what it had been, then it’s a praiseworthy thing to put his time and expertise (into),” Gates said in an interview with CNN’s Fareed Zakaria on Friday. “The fact that it turned into slashing these people, I didn’t expect that and some of that should be put back in place.”
Gates added that the world is in a “global health emergency” because of spending cuts to health programs by the US and European governments. The full interview will air on Fareed Zakaria GPS on Sunday at 10 a.m. ET and 1 p.m. ET.
The Microsoft cofounder’s comments come after he announced on Thursday plans to give away $200 billion — including “virtually all” of his personal wealth — through the Gates Foundation over the next 20 years before closing the organization, an acceleration of his previous spending plans. The decision was motivated in part, he said, by concerns that progress on improving global health is stagnating or even reversing.
Musk’s actions within the Trump administration are now making matters worse, Gates said.
“I think if you show up and say, in two months, you can cut $2 trillion out of a $7 trillion budget, you’re not going to succeed,” Gates said. “So you go for the softest things and things that are overseas, that you can mischaracterize… people that he hasn’t spent any time with.”
Gates criticized, for example, Musk’s false claim in February that the US government was spending $50 billion on condoms for Gaza, which Musk later admitted was incorrect. He also denounced Musk’s negative characterizations of USAID workers, whom Musk has previously called “radical lunatics” and “anti-American.” Gates called them “heroes.”
“Other than the military, these are about as honorable and, you know, they’re the face of America to people who we want to be alive with us, and we want their health systems to be tracking potential pandemics,” Gates said. “Demonizing them is deeply unfair.”
The Gates Foundation has spent more than $100 billion since its founding in 2000, partnering with government agencies and other nonprofits globally to tackle major health challenges. The organization’s work has included developing new vaccines, diagnostic tools and treatment delivery mechanisms to fight disease around the world.
Gates said that while Musk is “a genius in some domains … in global health, it hasn’t been a focus.” He added: “If it was a modest cut and a challenge to be more efficient… I’m fine with that. But 80%, that’s going to be millions of deaths and it’s a mistake.”
The comments followed an interview Gates gave to the Financial Times earlier this week, during which he accused Musk of “killing the world’s poorest children” with the government spending cuts.
A representative for Musk did not immediately respond to a request for comment. But it’s not the first time Musk and Gates have feuded over philanthropy. In 2022, Gates visited Musk in an effort to convince the Tesla CEO to increase his giving, but the meeting went sideways and afterwards Musk called Gates an “a-hole,” according to the Musk biography by Walter Isaacson, for which he spoke to both billionaires.
In the interview with Zakaria, Gates also raised concerns about other White House actions, including President Donald Trump’s tariff policies. The widespread tariffs threaten to raise costs for US consumers and upend operations for American businesses, just as AI is already expected to shake up the job market and economy.
“The big concern I have is we’ve created a lot of uncertainty,” Gates said. “If you’re going to build a new factory, you need to understand the policies for the next 20 years, not just the next two days or even four years.”
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