Microsoft founder and former CEO Bill Gates has joined the growing roster of high-profile billionaires that has dined with Donald Trump. According to a report, the President-elect recently hosted Gates for an ‘exciting’ 3-hour long dinner discussion.
In an interview with Wall Street Journal, Gates said that both of them spoke about \global health challenges.
“I had a chance, about two weeks ago, to go have a long and actually quite intriguing dinner with him,” Gates said, describing the dialogue as “quite wide-ranging.”
Bill Gates praise Donald Trump
The dinner, which included Susie Wiles, the incoming White House chief of staff, centered on global health challenges—a key focus of Gates’ philanthropic work through the Gates Foundation. Elon Musk, another prominent tech billionaire and confidant of Trump, was notably absent from the small group gathered at the meeting.
During the discussion, Gates and Trump delved into pressing global health concerns, including ongoing efforts to combat diseases like HIV and polio.
Gates shared that the conversation touched on strategies for accelerating medical innovation, particularly in the wake of rapid vaccine development during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“He, in the COVID days, accelerated the vaccine innovation,” Gates noted. “So I was asking him if maybe the same kind of thing could be done here, and we both got, I think, pretty excited about that.”
“He, in the Covid days, accelerated the vaccine innovation,” Gates said.
“So I was asking him if maybe the same kind of thing could be done here, and we both got, I think, pretty excited about that,” he added.
Gates commended Trump’s apparent enthusiasm and interest in the topics brought to the table.
“I felt like he was energized and looking forward to helping to drive innovation. I was frankly impressed with how well he showed a lot of interest in the issues I brought up,” he noted.
The meeting comes amid a broader wave of business magnates engaging with the incoming admministration. Tech leaders including Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos have also met with the President-elect.