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Bill Gates Accuses Elon Musk of Harming World’s Poorest Children Through Foreign Aid Cuts
Microsoft co-founder and philanthropist Bill Gates has sharply criticized Elon Musk for overseeing dramatic cuts to foreign aid, claiming the decision is endangering children’s lives in the world’s poorest nations.
In a recent interview with the Financial Times, Gates accused Musk, head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) under the Trump administration, of dismantling essential humanitarian programs. “The picture of the world’s richest man killing the world’s poorest children is not a pretty one,” Gates said.
Gates believes that DOGE’s slashing of USAID funding — which once administered $70 billion in food security, vaccine distribution, and global health programs — is undoing decades of progress. USAID had played a pivotal role in reducing childhood mortality, preventing disease outbreaks, and fighting famine across Africa, Asia, and Latin America.
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— gorklon rust (@elonmusk) February 12, 2025
According to Gates, the consequences are already being felt. “I’d love for [Musk] to go in and meet the children that have now been infected with HIV because he cut that money,” he said, pointing to programs in Mozambique that prevented mother-to-child transmission of HIV. The DOGE reportedly misidentified the region’s “Gaza Province” as linked to the Palestinian Gaza Strip and mistakenly classified the program as terrorism-linked.
Musk has defended his actions, calling USAID a “criminal organization” and saying it was “time for it to die.” On social media platform X, Musk called Gates a “huge liar.”
But Gates isn’t backing down. In another interview with The New York Times, he warned that childhood mortality may rise by a million deaths per year under the Trump administration, due in part to DOGE’s abrupt shutdown of aid channels. Gates said lifesaving medicine and food supplies have already expired in warehouses due to the speed and scale of the cuts.
Gates, whose foundation has distributed more than $100 billion in aid globally, says neither private organizations nor philanthropy can replace what was lost. “You can’t pull the plug and expect us to plug the hole,” he said.
While both Gates and Musk have signed the Giving Pledge to donate their wealth, their visions for how to do good in the world appear to be diverging sharply.
Gates has pledged to give away an additional $200 billion by 2045, focusing on global health, education, and poverty relief. “We’re trying to keep children alive,” he said. “That shouldn’t be political.”
{Source: PC Mag}
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