Elon Musk fired back Tuesday at fellow tech billionaire Bill Gates after the Microsoft co-founder accused him of “killing the world’s poorest children” with his work at the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
“Who does Bill Gates think he is to make comments about the welfare of children, given that he frequented Jeffrey Epstein?” Musk said at the Qatar Economic Forum Tuesday, to scattered applause from the audience.
“I wouldn’t want that guy to babysit my kids,” he added, calling Gates out for his close ties to the late convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein. Gates met with Epstein multiple times in the 2010s, even after Epstein had served jail time for soliciting a minor and was registered as a sex offender.
What Musk failed to mention is that he himself once visited Epstein at his Manhattan home—after the financier pled guilty to and was convicted for procuring an underage girl for prostitution in 2008. And in 2011 Musk attended the same “billionaire’s dinner” as Epstein.
Gates has slammed Musk’s government-slashing spree at DOGE multiple times this month, with special criticism reserved for the gutting of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID).
Warning that the sudden cuts have left life-saving food and medicines expiring in warehouses, he told the Financial Times, “The picture of the world’s richest man killing the world’s poorest children is not a pretty one.”
When Musk repeated his claim that Gates is a “huge liar,” while speaking to journalist Mishal Husain at the economic forum, Husain questioned whether there might be some truth to Gates’ claims that the cuts would lead to “millions of deaths.”
“It’s false,” the Tesla CEO said, arguing that USAID wasn’t aiding any children. He claimed he had asked to meet with children who had benefited from the agency’s programs—but to no avail.
“Like, can we at least see a few kids, like, where are they?” the Tesla CEO said, claiming DOGE had found an “enormous amount of fraud and graft.”
But Husain pressed on, pointing out that DOGE’s foreign aid freeze had caused disruptions to PEPFAR, the U.S. government program that delivers HIV and AIDS relief abroad. Modeling by the United Nations AIDS agency found that permanent discontinuation of PEPFAR-supported HIV programs would result in 4 million AIDS-related deaths by 2029.
“Then perhaps Bill Gates’ figures are not wrong—millions of lives could be lost,” Husain said.
That’s when a visibly irritated Musk grew defensive.
“OK so which ones aren’t being funded? I’ll fix it right now,” said the world’s richest man. Husain referred him to UNAID’s website.
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