Bill Gates revealed that he recently joined President-elect Donald Trump for dinner, making him the latest billionaire to meet with Trump as he prepares to retake office.
"I had a chance to go have a long and actually quite intriguing dinner with him," Gates told Wall Street Journal editor-in-chief Emma Tucker, adding that he was "frankly impressed" with the amount of interest Trump showed in a wide range of global health issues.
Why It Matters
Gates said in the interview that he had dined with Trump, the incoming chief of staff Susie Wiles, and Larry Cohen, the CEO of Gates Notes and a close aide to Gates.
The Microsoft cofounder's dinner with Trump comes as several other billionaires and tech CEOs court the president-elect, including Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, OpenAI's Sam Altman, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, Apple CEO Tim Cook and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, who will also help lead the Department of Government Efficiency.
What To Know
Gates, who also met with Trump after his first election win in 2016, told Tucker that their dinner focused primarily on global health issues related to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation's work.
"So the four of us sat there, and it was quite wide-ranging," Gates said. "You know, global health is the area that I work in, and such amazing things have happened and can happen there."
He added: "I spoke a lot about HIV and that the foundation's literally working on a cure for that. We're at an early stage. And so, you know, he, in the COVID days, accelerated the vaccine innovation. So I, you know, was asking him if maybe the same kind of thing could be done here. And we both got, I think, pretty excited about that."
Gates said he and Trump also discussed polio and its reemergence in Pakistan, Afghanistan, parts of Africa and the Gaza Strip.
"And he was fascinated to hear what he could do to maximize the chance that during the next four years, that incredible milestone will be achieved," Gates said. "I felt like he was, you know, energized and—you know—looking forward to helping to drive innovation. You know, I was frankly impressed with how well he showed a lot of interest in the issues I brought up."
Gates' dinner came a few weeks after Trump posted a cryptic message to Truth Social saying that he had asked to meet.
"Where are you? When are you coming to the 'Center of the Universe,' Mar-a-Lago," the message, which was posted on December 27, said. "Bill Gates asked to come, tonight. We miss you and x! New Year's Eve is going to be AMAZING!!! DJT"
The nature of the message and its mention of "x," who is Elon Musk's son, fueled some speculation that it was intended for Musk and not the public.
What People Are Saying
President-elect Donald Trump, at a Q&A last week: "Jeff Bezos came. Bill Gates came. Mark Zuckerberg came. Many of them came numerous times. The bankers have all come. Everybody is coming."
Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, at The New York Times' Dealbook Summit in December: "[Trump] seems to have a lot of energy around reducing regulation. If I can help do that, I'm going to help him."
What Happens Next
Trump will be inaugurated on January 20 at noon with a star-studded guest list including Musk, Zuckerberg, Bezos, Cook, Altman, TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew and Google CEO Sundar Pichai.
Many tech titans and companies poured millions into funding Trump's inaugural events. Zuckerberg will cohost a reception for Trump on Monday evening with several Republican billionaires.
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