Bill Gates Accuses Elon Musk of ‘Killing Children’ by Cutting Foreign Aid

In his sharpest rebuke of the world’s richest man, a distinction he once held, Bill Gates accused Elon Musk at least twice in the past week of “killing” children in the world’s poorest countries by cutting foreign aid under the Trump administration.

Mr. Gates, the billionaire Microsoft co-founder and philanthropist, assailed Mr. Musk for the actions he has taken as the head of President Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency during interviews with The New York Times Magazine and The Financial Times.

He said that Mr. Musk bore responsibility for gutting the U.S. Agency for International Development, a decision that Mr. Gates argued had undermined decades of progress fighting diseases such as measles, H.I.V. and polio.

In a wide-ranging interview with The Times Magazine last week, Mr. Gates said that Mr. Musk had put the U.S.A.I.D. in “the wood chipper,” a direct reference to remarks made in February by Mr. Musk on social media gloating about cuts to the agency.

Mr. Gates questioned whether Mr. Musk, the Tesla and SpaceX chief executive, would uphold his commitment to what is known as the Giving Pledge — a nonbinding commitment to give away at least half of one’s wealth to charity — which Mr. Musk signed in 2012.

“He could go on to be a great philanthropist,” Mr. Gates told the magazine. “In the meantime, the world’s richest man has been involved in the deaths of the world’s poorest children.”

His criticism was timed around an announcement by Mr. Gates that the Gates Foundation, which turned 25 on Thursday, would wind down its work over the next 20 years. He pledged to give an additional $200 billion to charity during that time, effectively spending down his personal fortune.

Mr. Gates used more scathing language in an interview published on Thursday by The Financial Times.

“The picture of the world’s richest man killing the world’s poorest children is not a pretty one,” he said.

In a statement on Thursday, Harrison Fields, a White House spokesman, defended Mr. Musk’s role in the administration and appeared to take a swipe at Mr. Gates.

“Elon Musk is a patriot working to fulfill President Trump’s mission to eliminate waste, fraud and abuse,” the statement said. “Backbenchers should celebrate the selfless efforts of America’s most innovative entrepreneur, who is dedicating time to support American taxpayers and hold Washington accountable to the people of this great nation.”