Microsoft founder Bill Gates is complaining about fellow billionaire Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency’s efforts to shutter the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID).
“Well, Elon, his private sector work, you know, has been very innovative, really fantastic,” Gates said following news that USAID offices had been closed and the charity’s funds frozen.
“A lot of private sector people, when they get into government, they don’t take the time necessarily to see what the good work is or why it’s structured the way it is, so I’m a little worried, particularly with this USAID stuff,” Gates continued.
“My foundation partners with USAID on nutrition and getting vaccines out, and, you know, there’s incredible people,” he added. “You know, they’re not actually worms that work there. So, you know, hopefully, we’ll get some of that work back in shape. In fact, if we don’t, you know, you could have literally millions of deaths.”
Gates also personally tried to lobby Trump administration officials to continue funding global health projects, ranging from childhood vaccination to HIV treatment, while warning that his foundation cannot step in to address shortfalls.
“Bill was recently in Washington D.C. meeting with decision makers to discuss the life-saving impact of U.S. international assistance and the need for a strategic plan to protect the world’s most vulnerable while safeguarding America’s health and security,” said a spokesperson for the Gates Foundation, his charitable organization.
“Gates told the officials he met with that his foundation cannot replace the role of the U.S. government, the sources said. Gates Foundation directors have also said publicly that no foundation has that capability,” Reuters noted.
Trump’s administration could consider criminal charges against USAID staffers following a bombshell investigation by the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) that uncovered severe abuses within foreign aid programs.
Pete Marocco, USAID’s deputy administrator-designate, briefed members of the House Foreign Affairs Committee on the ongoing review of the agency’s spending and operations, conducted under Trump’s directive.
The Capitol Hill meeting sought to provide lawmakers with an update on the review of foreign aid policies implemented under Trump. During discussions, Marocco suggested that the ongoing investigation—which has been shaped by findings from Elon Musk’s DOGE initiative—could result in criminal referrals related to misconduct at USAID.
“Apparently, there’s still judicial action that has even come out as late as this morning,” Rep. Keith Self, (R-TX), who attended the meeting, told DailyMail in an interview. “They intend to refer USAID officials to DOJ,” he added, highlighting that fraud “is a criminal act.”
The congressman stated that Morocco did not rule out the possibility of both USAID employees and grant recipients being implicated in criminal activities.
“If they are detecting outright fraud, not just bad programs, not just ignoble programs, not just programs that don’t support the national interest of the United States, if they’re finding fraud, then, absolutely” the perpetrators should face prosecution, Self said.
He added that criminal charges would only result from a robust “paper trail” of evidence.
“You’re going to have to have a paper trail to prove that,” Self added. “And I doubt that they would refer anyone without a very strong paper trail.”
Another person who attended the briefing confirmed the seriousness of the allegations in an interview with DailyMail.com.
“Marocco briefed the full House Foreign Affairs Committee, Democrats and Republicans, that the waste, fraud, and abuse at USAID was more severe than initially presumed,” the source told the outlet.
“He told lawmakers that multiple referrals to the Justice Department for criminal prosecution were being considered,” they continued. “The conduct in question arose because of USAID’s decentralized accountability system that often left grantees on the ground using American tax dollars in ways that were both inappropriate and potentially illegal.”
