Yes he would.
Bill Gates: Musk wouldn’t be telling USAID workers to say home if he knew what it does
Sure he would. Of course he would. He is not a nice man.
Anyway, if he doesn’t know what it does, what business does he have meddling with it in any way? How hard would it have been to find out what it does?
Billionaire Bill Gates said in an interview early Tuesday that Elon Musk “wouldn’t be telling” employees at the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) not to come to work if he “really knew” what it does.
“I give billions of dollars to the same thing that USAID does. I go out in the field and study these things. I hire scientists,” Gates said on NBC’s “Today” show.
The Gates Foundation is about a 20 minute walk from here. I kind of feel like giving it a hug or something.
“And so, you know, I think if he really knew the work there, he wouldn’t be telling 10,000 people not to come and do that work,” he added.
But that assumes he’s a decent person, and he’s not. No one who embraces Trump is decent, and Musk is doing way more than embracing.
Comments
4 responses to “If he really knew”
I think if Musk knew, he’d still do the same thing. He’s a hypocritical and racist shit, with some frankly weird and unpleasant beliefs, and that’s before we get to the nazism in the room. Of particular note, who do we think has been inTrump’s ear about white farmers in South Africa having their land taken and how unfair and racist that is? Whatever the rights and wrongs of that process (and there are wrongs), it takes a special kind of world view to ignore the fact that the land was taken from black people and held by force of a militarised racist state from those black people within recent enough history. So yeah, some context matters.
I don’t assume Phony Stark is a decent person. He may be trying to destroy USAid precisely because he disagrees with the work they do. Others have pointed out that USAid worked to end apartheid.
https://2012-2017.usaid.gov/news-information/frontlines/50-years-and-food-security/mission-south-africa
Musk’s Canadian grandfather moved to South Africa because he thought apartheid was great.
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2025/jan/26/elon-musk-peter-thiel-apartheid-south-africa
So maybe USAid working to end the system his family fortune was based on is still a sore point for Musk.
Kevin Drum wrote today:
I don’t agree that the mere fact that something is “wildly illegal” is of any consequence to Musk. If it benefits him and he can get away with it, he’ll do it.
I think I’ve been fully black pilled on Musk… Was the arsehole shit poster but just an act and now he’s going mask off to accomplish a long term plan of revenge for the end of apartheid? I honestly don’t know but I’m beginning to suspect it…
I am definitely regretting my “he’s just a giant asshole” defenses…