The Microsoft co-founder and billionaire said he had a “brief meeting” with President Donald Trump and a “long meeting” with chief of staff Susie Wiles.

Summary

Bill Gates met with Trump and White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles to advocate for continuing USAID’s foreign aid programs.

The Trump administration has frozen them amid scrutiny from Elon Musk.

Gates praised USAID as the world’s best development agency and warned its dismantling would be difficult to reverse.

While Trump and Wiles’ response was unclear, Gates noted he had not spoken with Musk, who has called USAID a “criminal organization” and pushed for deep federal workforce cuts.

  • UpperBroccoli@lemmy.blahaj.zone
    3·
    5 hours ago

    There is no such thing as billionaire philantropy - if you examine it closely, it’s just another scam to avoid paying taxes. Bill Gates is as much a philantropist as I am a billionaire.

    • jagged_circle@feddit.nlEnglish
      2·
      5 hours ago

      Well, thats not true. There is such a thing as philanthropic donations. USAID makes money off poor people with loans. Thats not philanthropic.

      Most of these assholes do it for greed reasons, but there is a small slice of rich people who actually do contribute just to help important causes.

      Dont throw the baby out with the bath water

      • EisFrei@lemmy.world
        2·
        4 hours ago

        Of course there are donations, but that is not the point of the phrase.

        There are no philanthropic billionaires, because they would have started giving away their wealth before even getting close to a billion.

        All these people do is buying a little peace of mind.