Photo: Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP
Billionaire Microsoft founder Bill Gates has accused Elon Musk of making one of the harshest public statements against the Tesla CEO. In an interview with The New York Times, Gates said that Musk, who heads the Trump administration’s Department for Government Efficiency (DOGE), is responsible for “the deaths of the world’s poorest children” due to the reduction in US foreign aid.
“He cut USAID’s budget to shreds, simply because he wasn’t invited to the party,” Gates said. One example is Gaza Province in Mozambique, where the funding cutoff deprived mothers of access to medicines that prevent HIV transmission to newborns. According to Gates, “those who made the decision didn’t even know it wasn’t Gaza, it was Mozambique.”
The Gates Foundation has been funding programmes to combat childhood diseases in developing countries for decades. Therefore, he called the actions of DOGE “shocking” and “inexcusable”.
In addition, Gates referred to Musk’s political influence in Europe, accusing him of interfering in the internal affairs of the UK and Germany. Speaking to The Times earlier this year, he said: “It’s crazy that one person has so much influence over elections in other countries. Countries have to protect themselves from super-rich foreigners who distort democracy.”
There has been no official response from Musk in response to these statements. At the same time, Bloomberg estimates his wealth at $335 billion, which is almost twice as much as Gates, who has repeatedly publicly stated his intention to give all his wealth to charity for the rest of his life.
