Washington-El Multimillonario Bill Gates, a philanthropist and co-founder of Microsoft, said he met with President Donald Trump in the White House on Wednesday to advocate for the continuous disbursements of foreign aid of the United States agency for international development.
“I went to the White House because there is a lot in this transition, what we maintain, in terms of foreign aid, what we keep, everything is in the air,” NBC “NBC Savannah Guthrie told the presenter in an interview. “And I am doing everything possible to make sure we maintain the things that I think are very based on value.”
Gates said he had a “brief meeting” with Trump and a “long meeting” with the head of Cabinet Susie Wiles, whom he called “very reflective.” He spoke with Guthrie at an event at George Washington University, where he was promoting his new book.
“I went through that ‘Hey, I’ve been in the field with Usaid,” said Gates, who encoded the Gates Foundation without profit in 2000.
“It’s amazing what asset is an asset,” he said, referring to USAID operations worldwide. “I know all the development agencies of all countries, and this is the best of them.”
The Trump administration has signed up for USAID, an agency financed by taxpayers offered by billions of dollars in humanitarian aid to other countries, but has attracted the attention of the Elon Musk government efficiency department, which has accused him of unnecessary expenses. USAID has placed almost all direct contracts on the administrative license after the reforms under the Trump administration. The agency’s website has darkened, and the administration was temporarily frozen from foreign aid.
Replicating USAID’s impact would probably be difficult, Gates said.
“Taking these people in their depth of experience, it is an asset that would be very difficult to recreate,” he said.
The White House did not immediately answer Wednesday night to questions about meetings.
When Guthrie asked if Trump and Wiles seemed receptive to her arguments, Gates replied: “I hope.”
Gates told Guthrie that he has not met with Musk, a driving force behind the cuts that has referred to Usaid as a “criminal organization” in the midst of his efforts to gartain him, to discuss the issue.
“I don’t know how open it is,” Gates told Guthrie.
While Gates said that “there is nothing more than admiration” for Musk’s innovation with Tesla and Spacex, he said that when people move to the public sector, “sometimes people appreciate that this is different from the private sector.”
“Even in the private sector, you rarely say goodbye to 100% of people overnight,” he said, seeming to refer to Musk’s efforts to reduce the federal workforce.
