Elon Musk responds to Bill Gates after he accused him of ‘killing the world’s poorest children’

Gates shared his criticisms of Musk’s role in DOGE

Bill Gates slammed Elon Musk over his leading of Donald Trump’s DOGE, but the Twitter owner has since hit back with a blunt five-word response.

After being sworn in for his second term as US president, Donald Trump swiftly appointed Elon Musk as the head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).

During his 90 days in the role, Musk certainly didn’t waste any time with his task to slash the federal workforce to save money, sending an ultimatum email out to employees – with Trump’s government then ending up having to come back with their tail between their legs to rehire 180 people.

The move didn’t go unnoticed by Microsoft founder and philanthropist Bill Gates, who went on to accuse him of ‘killing the world’s poorest children’ as a result of shrinking dozens of agencies and departments, including foreign aid initiatives like the US Agency for International Development (USAID).

Speaking of USAID, Musk said back in February it was a ‘criminal organization’ and it was ‘time for it to die.’

Before Musk came in with his axe, USAID reportedly had around 10,000 staff and was the world’s largest single donor of humanitarian aid – spending $40 million across the world in 2023’s fiscal year.

Yet Musk said: “It became apparent that it’s not an apple with a worm it in. What we have is just a ball of worms. You’ve got to basically get rid of the whole thing.”

Gates resolved this as a show of ‘the world’s richest man killing the world’s poorest children’ – noting to the Financial Times the picture ‘is not a pretty one’.

And Gorklon Rust – aka Elon Musk – has since seemingly responded to Gates, taking to Twitter on May 8.

The post, which is responding to a clip of Gates on CBS Morning making a similar claim, reads: “Gates is a huge liar.”

However, Gates went into more detail in his interview.

He detailed how the cuts DOGE made have led to life-saving medicines and food supplies expiring in warehouses.

Gates explained how this could well lead to countries seeing a surge in diseases such as measles, HIV and polio as a result of not having access to such medicines.

The philanthropist also accused Musk of cancelling grants to aid a hospital in Gaza which prevents women passing HIV on to their newborn babies under a false claim that the US was distributing condoms to Hamas in the region.

He added: “I’d love for him to go in and meet the children that have now been infected with HIV because he cut that money.”

UNILAD has previously reached out to the US government for comment.

Bill Gates slams Elon Musk’s venture into politics after he was accused of giving ‘Nazi salute’ at Trump rally

The billionaire has taken a swipe at Elon Musk for being an ‘insane’ ‘populist stirrer’

When you’re the richest person on the planet you can kind of do what you want, which Elon Musk has proved since venturing into politics as Donald Trump begins his second term of presidency.

But not everyone in the ‘billionaire club’ is a fan of Musk’s political career – one of which is Microsoft founder Bill Gates.

The Tesla CEO arguably hasn’t had the best start as the leader of the newly founded Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), with him recently being accused of doing a ‘Nazi salute’ at Trump’s victory rally on inauguration day.

And now, Gates has spoken about Musk’s bold venture into the world of US politics.

“I thought the rules of the game were you picked a finite number of things to spout about that you cared for, focused on a few critical things, rather than telling people who they should vote for,” Gates said during a new interview with The Times.

That’s not him saying he’s never had an opinion. In fact, the 69-year-old mentioned that he thought ‘Brexit was a mistake’ – the UK’s decision to leave the European Union and become independent – ‘but I wasn’t tweeting every day’.

When the tech mogul was asked whether he wished he had gotten involved in politics more in the way that the SpaceX owner has, he sternly replied: “Not at all.”

Explaining how he and Musk are the complete opposite of each other – with Gates concentrating his efforts solely on offering world aid, while Musk focuses on ventures like buying social media platforms and beginning a political career – he said: “I’m ultra-different.”

“It’s really insane that he can destabilise the political situations in countries,” he added.

“I think in the US foreigners aren’t allowed to give money; other countries maybe should adopt safeguards to make sure super-rich foreigners aren’t distorting their elections.

“It’s difficult to understand why someone who has a car factory in both China and in Germany, whose rocket business is ultra-dependent on relationships with sovereign nations and who is busy cutting $2 trillion in US government expenses and running five companies, is obsessing about this grooming story in the UK. I’m like, what?”

He went on to explain how Musk has been calling one of the most right wing politicians in the UK, Nigel Farage, as being ‘not right wing enough’.

“I mean, this is insane s**t. You are for the AfD,” he added, speaking of the far-right political movement in Germany. “We can all overreach… If someone is super-smart, and he is, they should think how they can help out. But this is populist stirring.”

Speaking to the UK publication, Gates explained how he now worries about politics as much as another pandemic.

He continued: “The whole political situation with polarisation is very dangerous. Certainly, if you think through my lens of ‘Let’s help the poor countries,’ there is a lot going on.

“The Labour government came in [in the UK] and is less generous on aid than the Tories who came before it. Our problem is an ageing society, tight budgets and a right wing inward turning, with hatred of all foreigners, and hence refusing aid to them even if they’re not in your own country.

“We’re in a challenging situation.”

Trump’s chief of staff issues major update on Elon Musk’s role within the White House

Musk featured prominently alongside Trump in his early days back in office

Donald Trump’s chief of staff has issued an update on Elon Musk’s role in the White House after he was previously appointed to lead the president’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).

Musk featured prominently alongside Trump during his early days back in office, at one point even bringing his son into the Oval Office to hang out with the POTUS while the two adults answered questions from press.

The involvement of the SpaceX founder in the government caused some controversy as members of the public questioned what his actual role was, and in an interview with Fox News earlier this year Trump said he picked Musk as his go-to man because he ‘couldn’t find anyone smarter’.

More recently, however, Musk has been noticeably absent from public engagements with Trump, and during a recent Tesla earnings call Musk revealed that his time running DOGE would be reduced ‘significantly’ from May as he focuses on running the electric car company.

Speaking with investors, Musk explained that he would spend a ‘day or two per week’ on government issues ‘for as long as the president would like [him] to do so’.

Now, Chief of Staff Susie Wiles has revealed that Musk is no longer working directly alongside Trump at the White House.

In an interview with The New York Post, she said: “Instead of meeting with him in person, I’m talking to him on the phone, but it’s the same net effect.

“He’s not out of it altogether. He’s just not physically present as much as he was. He hasn’t been here physically, but it really doesn’t matter much.

“The people that are doing this work are here doing good things and paying attention to the details. He’ll be stepping back a little, but he’s certainly not abandoning it. And his people are definitely not.”

DOGE will continue to run in spite of Musk’s step back, with the department aimed at cutting government costs, modernizing federal technology, ending fraud and a waste of taxpayer money while improving overall governmental productivity.

In a recent interview to mark his 100 days in office, Trump claimed DOGE has saved ‘$150 billion’, and had put a lot of spending ‘under investigation’.

“That’s a tremendous amount of money,” Trump said.

Elon Musk warns Bill Gates could go bankrupt if Tesla meets this one condition

The pair have never been the best of friends…

Elon Musk has warned Bill Gates could go bankrupt in the future if Tesla meets one condition.

They are two of the most powerful and richest men on the planet, but they often don’t seen eye to eye.

Back in April 2022, Musk said he refused a philanthropy request from Gates over the stock shorting incident, which was revealed by screenshots of a text exchange between the pair.

The Tesla CEO asked Gates if he still had a ‘half billion dollar short position against Tesla’, to which the Microsoft founder replied: “Sorry to say I haven’t closed it yet […] I would like to discuss philanthropy possibilities.”

Musk says he couldn’t take Gates’ climate change philanthropy ‘seriously’ when he has a ‘massive short position against Tesla, the company doing the most to solve climate change’.

There were understandably questions on if the screenshots were real, to which Musk replied: “Yeah, but I didn’t leak it to NYT. They must have got it through friends of friends. I heard from multiple people at TED that Gates still had half billion short against Tesla, which is why I asked him, so it’s not exactly top secret.”

Gates had since apologised to Musk over the incident, though their relationship has seemingly never recovered from that situation.

Now, the Twitter (X) owner has claimed he could make Gates bankrupt if the Tesla stock surges 200 per cent.

The comment from Musk came after a Twitter user posted a screenshot of a tweet the billionaire posted on his social media platform in 2023.

It reads: “Just so that the public understands: Taking out a short position against Tesla, as Gates did, results in the highest return only if a company goes bankrupt!

“Gates placed a massive bet on Tesla dying when our company was at one of its weakest moments several years ago. Such a big short position also drives the stock down for everyday investors.

“To the best of my knowledge, Gates *still* has that massive bet against Tesla on the table. Someone should ask him if he does.

“The lack of self-awareness and hypocrisy of Gates who had the nerve to ask me to donate to his mostly window-dressing environmental causes, while simultaneously aiming to make $500M from Tesla’s demise, boggles the mind…”

Musk then added: “If Tesla does become the world’s most valuable company by far, that short position will bankrupt even Bill Gates.”

If Tesla’s stock was to surge by 200 per cent, it would make the car giant the most valuable company in the world, overtaking Apple.