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Billionaire Bill Gates recently offered a rare glimpse into his private conversation with President-elect Donald Trump and a nearly three-hour dinner that left him “blown away.” Gates, who endorsed Trump’s opponent, Vice President Harris in the 2024 election, appeared to leave the dinner with feelings of optimism about the president-elect.
“I had the opportunity, about two weeks ago, to go to dinner with him at length and quite intriguingly.” Gates told the Wall Street Journal.
In his interview, Gates detailed the “extensive” dinner conversation, noting that he spoke with Trump about public health, which has been a major focus of Gates’ philanthropic efforts.
“I felt like I was energized and eager to help drive innovation,” Gates told the WSJ. “I was frankly impressed with how well he showed a lot of interest in the issues I raised.”
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Bill Gates (left) and President-elect Donald Trump (right). (Thierry Monasse/Rebecca Noble/Getty Images/Getty Images)
Gates’ dinner with Trump comes as a growing group of billionaires and technology leaders met with the president-elect before his historic return to the White House. Amazon founder Jeff Bezos dined with Trump at Mar-a-Lago and pledged $1 million to the president-elect’s inaugural fund. Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta Platforms also donated $1 million to the fund.
Citing people familiar with the discussion, the WSJ reported that the salary promise came before Zuckerberg met with Trump at a Mar-a-Lago dinner in November following the Republican’s presidential victory.
Microsoft founder Bill Gates reacts during a visit with British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak at Imperial College on February 15, 2023 in London. (Justin Tallis – WPA Pool/Getty Images/Getty Images)
At the dinner, according to the outlet, Zuckerberg also gave a demo of the company’s latest invention, Ray Ban smart glasses, and gave them to Trump.
Bezos, who also made the trip to Trump’s Florida estate, said he left the dinner feeling “very optimistic” about the incoming administration. He also brushed off concerns about Trump’s relationship with Elon Musk.
“Elon has been very clear that he is doing this for the public interest and not for his own personal gain. And I take that at face value,” Bezos told Reuters, referring to the SpaceX CEO.
Bill Gates discusses his new book ‘How to Prevent the Next Pandemic’ on stage at 92Y on May 3, 2022, in New York City (Michael Loccisano/Getty Images/Getty Images)
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Trump’s relationship with billionaires and tech moguls has changed dramatically since 2020, when he was banned from several social media platforms. In October, it was reported that Gates said privately that he gave about $50 million to a non-profit organization that supports Vice President Harris.
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Additionally, Zuckerberg announced the end of Meta’s controversial fact-checking policies in a push to restore “free speech on Facebook and Instagram.” Zuckerberg admitted that the controls, which began in the wake of Trump’s 2016 victory, “destroyed more trust than they created.” He also claimed the policies led to “too much censorship,” despite the company’s “good faith” attempts to “address concerns” about misinformation.
