Bill Gates: how international development can survive the Trump presidency

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• 00:01

  Since it was founded in the year 2000,

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  the Gates Foundation has given away more than $100 billion to charitable causes abroad and in the US.

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  Its founder, Bill Gates, once the world's richest man,

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  recently announced plans to spend almost all of his remaining fortune,

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  some $200 billion on global health, development and education over the next 20 years.

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  But is Elon Musk currently the world's richest man and architect of the so-called Department of Government Efficiency,

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  DOGE, undermining the work that Gates has already done?

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  Might the Trump administration go after the Gates Foundation directly?

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  Or can the former Microsoft CEO keep his charitable mission afloat in choppy political waters?

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  This is The Economics Show.

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  I'm David Pilling, the FT's Africa editor.

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  Today, you're going to hear an edited version of my recent interview with Bill Gates.

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  I spoke to him by video link at the end of April to ask him how international development can survive the Trump administration.

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  I started by asking him

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  if he's worried that the Trump administration could target the Gates Foundation over their tax-exempt status.

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  It's not at all clear that an executive order could override,

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  you know, for example, the ability of foundations to give internationally.

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  We don't know if they're going to do anything like that.

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  As you say, there were rumors to that effect, but I'm quite sure nothing has officially happened.

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  We give a lot of money internationally.

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