Bill Gates’ harsh comments to Elon Musk about the DOGE cuts: “that’s going to be millions of deaths”
The tech mogul has hit out at Elon Musk’s DOGE cuts, calling out the way in which the South African has gone about his business.
Bill has Gates hit out at South-African-CEO-of-Telsa-turned-unelected-government-official Elon Musk over the reckless dismantling of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID).
Gates labeled the cuts as “illiterate” and warned they could lead to millions of deaths, particularly among children in impoverished regions.
Musk fiendishly bragged about feeding the agency to the “woodchipper” and the Trump administration have since taken world-shattering steps to tear apart USAID and halt its foreign assistance mission.
USAID, established in 1961, has been a cornerstone of U.S. foreign aid, implementing programs in global health, disaster relief, and socioeconomic development across over 100 countries. Recent actions have seen its workforce reduced from over 10,000 to potentially fewer than 300 employees, with plans to integrate remaining programs into the State Department by July 1.
Musk cuts to cause ‘millions of deaths and it’s a mistake’
Gates told CNN’s Fareed Zakaria: “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). The fact that it turned into slashing these people, I didn’t expect that and some of that should be put back in place.”
“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 added. “So you go for the softest things and things that are overseas, that you can mischaracterise… people that he hasn’t spent any time with.”
Recently, Gates himself announced his commitment to donate $200 billion and “virtually all” of his personal wealth to global health initiatives through the Gates Foundation by 2045. The Gates Foundation has spent more than $100 billion since its founding in 2000 in its attempt to tackle major health challenges across the globe. It has aided in developing new vaccines, tools and treatment delivery mechanisms to fight disease around the world.
“Other than the military, these are about as honourable 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. Demonising them is deeply unfair”, he said.
Gates admitted that Musk may well be “a genius in some domains” he was quick to also point out that as for global health, “it hasn’t been a focus.”
We have an opportunity to save more lives around the world than ever before—and I want to do even more to help. That's why I'm giving away virtually all of my wealth through the Gates Foundation over the next 20 years. pic.twitter.com/Z5o6ggWYGz
— Bill Gates (@BillGates) May 8, 2025
“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“, he concluded.
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