WASHINGTON () A push by Bill Gates to reverse the Trump administration’s cuts to the U.S. Agency for International Development has fallen flat, has learned.
The billionaire philanthropist met with Secretary of State Marco Rubio last week at the White House to make his pitch over the cuts, which came at the behest of the quasi-official Department of Government Efficiency.
Gates made his move after President Donald Trump’s relationship with Elon Musk, the head of DOGE, melted down in a bitter online feud.
But Rubio’s position “has not changed,” a State Department spokesperson told .
“He does not believe U.S. taxpayers should be burdened with covering the costs for progressive projects abroad, including funding contraceptives, electric buses and DEI,” the spokesperson said.
The spokesperson added, “We will only be funding true lifesaving programs and initiatives that advance our national interests.”
The battle over USAID has become emblematic of the broader debate about the work of Musk and DOGE. Supporters say the businessman and his allies were helping winnow down a bloated and wasteful government. Critics contend cuts were made in a cavalier and arbitrary fashion, and that their approach would harm the nation’s interests in the end.
In the first two weeks of the Trump administration, DOGE largely dismantled the work of more than 10,000 USAID employees worldwide. All but 15 staffers were put on leave, and signage identifying the headquarters in Washington, D.C., was removed.
Gates condemned the cuts soon afterward. In an interview with the Financial Times in May, he accused Musk, the world’s richest man, of “killing the world’s poorest children.”
“The picture of the world’s richest man killing the world’s poorest children is not a pretty one,” Gates said
The White House has since asked Congress to claw back $8.3 billion in federal funds that had been appropriated for foreign aid the bulk of it already designated for USAID.
