Billionaire Microsoft co-founder and philanthropist Bill Gates revealed earlier this month on David Remnick’s New Yorker Radio Hour that he met with then-President-elect Donald Trump in December at Mar-a-Lago for a three-hour dinner.
Gates said he “sought out” Trump with the goal of encouraging the President to continue to support America’s aid and relief programs for HIV, including the PEPFAR program which “keeps over ten million people alive with HIV medicines.”
[Note: PEPFAR, the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, is a foreign aid program that was started by then-President George W. Bush in 2003. According to the State Department, the US has given over $110 billion in funding to PEPFAR.]
Gates acknowledged that “other people” might try to convince the President that the HIV money should be cut. “But I did my best,” Gates said.
Gates said he referred to Trump’s first term “Warp Speed” campaign, which accelerated the production of COVID-19 vaccines, and suggested a similar effort could be applied to HIV cure work. Gates told Remnick that the president was “quite enthused about that.”
On Wednesday, after Trump’s cabinet meeting, The New York Times reported that “several aid workers and U.S.A.I.D. officials said that at least some money for the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, or PEPFAR, had been eliminated.”
Lawyers for the aid groups (AIDS Vaccine Advocacy Coalition and Global Health Council) currently suing the Trump administration asked the court on Wednesday to allow them to call Secretary of State Marco Rubio to testify, as administration lawyers reportedly said Rubio had “personal involvement” in decisions about the foreign aid funding, making his testimony essential.
As seen below, Global Health Council campaigners protested the federal funding freeze inside the Cannon House Office Building on Capitol Hill, with signs that “Save PEPFAR Now!” signs.
For my final post on X (for the foreseeable future), covering a protest at Cannon House Office Building for @WashBlade. Activists arrested following protest against cuts to PEPFAR and USAID. pic.twitter.com/EXWlWHwW25
— Michael Patrick Key (@MichaelKeyWB) February 26, 2025
Many of the protestors were later arrested.
Pro-@PEPFAR protesters just got arrested at the Cannon building in Congress. #foreignaidfreeze pic.twitter.com/e7oJ5L7Vc7
— Carmen Paun (@carmenpaun) February 26, 2025