Bill and Melinda Gates on Trump and philanthropy

In the tenth edition of the Gates Foundation’s annual letter, Bill and Melinda Gates have chosen a different tact, tackling head-on “The 10 Tough Questions” they’re often asked about their $40 billion foundation.

Questions range from the political to the personal, including,”Are you imposing your values on other cultures?” and, “What do you have to show for the billions you’ve spent on U.S. education?”

However, the most frequently asked question on the Gates’ list is about the current U.S. president: “How are President Trump’s policies affecting your work?”

In the joint letter, Bill Gates, who recently revealed that his father is suffering from dementia, writes that over the past year, he’s been asked “about President Trump and his policies more often than all the other topics in this letter combined.”

The Microsoft founder and billionaire addressed President Trump’s U.S centric foreign policy, writing that “the America First worldview concerns me.”

“For decades the United States has been a leader in the fight against disease and poverty abroad,” he said. “These efforts save lives. They also create U.S. jobs. And they make Americans more secure by making poor countries more stable and stopping disease outbreaks before they become pandemics.”


“The world is not a safer place when more people are sick or hungry,” Gates added.

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In the letter, the Gates acknowledge the extreme wealth inequality their fortune represents. "No, it's not fair that we have so much wealth when billions of others have so little," says Melinda. "And it's not fair that our wealth opens doors that are closed to most people."

So, "If we think it's unfair that we have so much wealth, why don't we give it all to the government?" asks Bill. "The answer is that we think there's always going to be a unique role for foundations."

Philanthropic foundations can "take a global view to find the greatest needs, take a long-term approach to solving problems, and manage high-risk projects that governments can't take on and corporations won't. If a government tries an idea that fails, someone wasn't doing their job. Whereas if we don't try some ideas that fail, we're not doing our jobs," says Bill.

"We both come from families that believed in leaving the world better than you found it," writes Melinda. "My parents made sure my siblings and I took the social justice teachings of the Catholic Church to heart. Bill's mom was known, and his dad still is known, for showing up to advocate for a dizzying number of important causes and support more local organizations than you can count.


"Our goal is to do what our parents taught us and do our part to make the world better," says Melinda.