Bill Gates will meet with President Trump again on Monday, just a few months after meeting with the then-president-elect to discuss the power of innovation.
White House press secretary Sean Spicer said during his Thursday briefing that the meeting would be happening, but no further details were provided.
In December, Gates traveled to Trump Tower in New York. He said at the time that he and Trump “had a good conversation about innovation” and how it can “help in health, education, impact of foreign aid and energy.”
The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation hinted in a statement Thursday at what might be on the table next week:
“The foundation has a long history of working with officials on both sides of the aisle to pursue shared priorities like global health and development and domestic education. Bill will meet with congressional leaders and members of the administration to discuss the tremendous progress made to-date in these areas and the critical and indispensable role that the United States has played in achieving these gains.”
In a new post on his Gates Notes blog — How Foreign Aid Helps Americans — Gates also tips some of what he may want to discuss with Trump and other political leaders.
“When I first got involved in health and development more than 15 years ago, the main motivation was to save and improve people’s lives around the world,” Gates wrote. “That’s still true today, but over the years I have come to see the tangible ways in which American aid benefits Americans too.”
In a wide-ranging interview with GeekWire last month, the Microsoft co-founder spoke about his outlook when it comes to the new administration.
“He’s met with all sorts of different groups about a lot of different things,” Gates said. “He took the time, he listened and he wanted to understand about some of the different diseases and the strength of the American role of doing all these things.”
Gates said he did raise the subject of vaccines during his previous meeting with Trump. The president has been publicly skeptical about vaccines, citing fears about a purported link to autism, and Gates has blasted that claim.
“Vaccines are a miracle. They’re fantastic. Anything that makes people hesitate to give their children these vaccines according to the recommended schedule creates risk,” Gates said. “Getting the word out that, yes, vaccines are great, the safety data is very, very clear, including any of these specific concerns, that’s very important to our foundation in every country.”
