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Cnn
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Bill Gates calls his Elon Musk technological billionaire colleague on the cuts made to American public spending under its monitoring through the government’s Ministry of Effectiveness, saying The elimination of the American Agency for International Development (USAID) would lead to millions of deaths worldwide.
The warning comes after the Trump administration took action to dismantle Usaid and stop its Foreign assistance mission, With a musk boasting of nourishing the agency with “bombing”. During the weeks that followed, many non -profit organizations were faced with canceled contracts or sporadic payments, although some have since been restored in the middle of warnings of assistance organizations on the potentially deadly consequences of funding for funding.
“When Elon entered the government, if his thing was really a question of efficiency or use of AI, you know, of course, we have to make the government more effective. If that was what it was, then it is a commendable thing to devote its time and its expertise),” said Gates during an interview with Fare Zakaria from CNN on Friday. “The fact that this has been transformed into a reduction in these people, I did not expect that and part of this should be replaced.”
Gates has added that the world is in a “global health emergency” due to discount of health programs by American and European governments. The full interview will be broadcast on the GPS of Zakaria Fareed Sunday at 10 a.m. and 1 p.m. he.
Microsoft’s co -founder comments are involved after having announced Thursday the intention to give $ 200 billion – including “almost all” of personal wealth – through the Gates Foundation in the next 20 years before closing the organization, an acceleration of its previous spending plans. The decision has been partly motivated, he said, by concerns that progress in improving global health are stagnating or even inverse.
Musk’s actions in the Trump administration now aggravate things, said Gates.
“I think that if you introduce yourself and say that in two months, you can cut 2 billions of dollars on a budget of 7 billions of dollars, you will not succeed,” said Gates. “So, you opt for the softest things and things that are abroad, that you can wander badly … The people with whom he did not spend time.”
Gates criticized, for example, Musk’s false complaint in February that the United States government spent $ 50 billion in condoms for Gaza, which Musk later admitted was incorrect. He also denounced the negative characterizations of Musk of the USAID workers, which Musk previously called “Radical Lunatics” and “Anti-American”. Gates called them “heroes”.
“Apart from the army, they are about as honorable and, you know, they are the face of America to people we want to be alive with us, and we want their health systems to follow potential pandemics,” said Gates. “Diabolizing them is deeply unfair.”
The Gates Foundation has spent more than $ 100 billion since its foundation in 2000, in partnership with government agencies and other non -profit organizations worldwide to meet the main health challenges. The work of the organization has included the development of new vaccines, diagnostic tools and treatment administration mechanisms to combat diseases worldwide.
Gates said that even if Musk is “a genius in certain areas … in global health, it was not a goal”. He added: “If it was a modest cut and a challenge to be more effective … I agree with that. But 80%, it will be millions of dead and that is a mistake.”
The comments followed an interview that Gates gave to the Financial Times earlier this week, during which he accused Musk of “killing the poorest children in the world” with the discounts of public spending.
A Musk representative did not immediately respond to a request for comments. But this is not the first time that musk and doors have been arguing philanthropy. In 2022, Gates visited Musk in order to convince the CEO of Tesla to increase his gifts, but the meeting took place on the side and then Musk qualified Gates as “hole”, according to the musc biography of Walter Isaacson, for which he spoke to the two billionaires.
In the interview with Zakaria, Gates also raised concerns about other actions of the White House, including the pricing policies of President Donald Trump. The widespread prices threaten to increase costs for American consumers and overthrow operations for American companies, just as AI should already shake the labor market and the economy.
“The great concern I have is that we have created a lot of uncertainty,” said Gates. “If you are going to build a new factory, you need to understand politicians for the next 20 years, not just the next two days or even four years.”
