Bill Gates: I had three-hour dinner with Trump… we spoke about global health issues

Bill Gates, the co-chair of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF), says he had a three-hour dinner with Donald Trump, the US president-elect.

In an interview with The Wall Street Journal, Gates said the dinner was “quite intriguing” and touched on many things.

The philanthropist said he and Trump discussed the Gates Foundation’s work on an HIV cure and polio eradication.

“It was over three hours to my surprise. It was just he and I, his chief of staff, Susie Wiles, and the person who helps manage things for me, Larry Cohen,” Gates said.

“So, the four of us sat there, and it was quite wide-ranging. You know, global health is the area that I work in, and such amazing things have happened and can happen there.

“I spoke a lot about HIV and that the foundation’s literally working on a cure for that. We’re at an early stage. In the COVID days, he accelerated the vaccine innovation.

“So I was asking him if maybe the same kind of thing could be done here. And we both got pretty excited about that. We talked about polio, where we’re very close to getting that done, but if you stop, it’ll spread back. I explained why it’s been tough in Pakistan, Afghanistan.

“We’ve had cases show up in Gaza, cases in Africa. 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 he felt Trump 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 said.