December 30, 2025 – Elon Musk has once again labeled Bill Gates as a “fraudster,” reigniting their long – standing feud. This time, the spark was set off by a post from a user on the X platform.
The user’s post took aim at the claim that cuts in funding for the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) had led to deaths. The user wrote, “Anyone who believes that ‘USAID funding cuts have caused deaths’ is too stupid to think normally. But here’s an obvious question: If this is true, why don’t those left – wing billionaires fill the funding gap? Why is it a moral obligation for American working – class people to fund population growth in Africa?”
Musk responded to this post, flatly stating that the claim was “completely false.” He went on to accuse Gates, saying, “Gates has been spreading this lie, even though his non – governmental organizations have over $80 billion in funds and could easily use that money to save those so – called ‘endangered lives’.” Musk then posed a pointed question, “Why doesn’t he do it?” and added, “Bill Gates is a fraudster, always has been.”
This latest clash follows a previous exchange earlier this year. In May, Gates criticized Musk for cutting foreign aid funds. He claimed that such a move would lead to a rise in the incidence of diseases like measles, AIDS, and polio, effectively taking the lives of the world’s poorest children. During an interview with the Financial Times, Gates remarked, “The sight of the world’s richest man taking the lives of the world’s poorest children is truly unbearable.” At that time, Musk was in charge of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), a task force set up by the Trump administration to reduce federal spending. In February of this year, DOGE officially shut down USAID, calling it a “criminal organization” and stating that it “should have been put out of its misery long ago.”
In the same Financial Times interview, Gates also alleged that Musk had canceled funding for several hospitals in Gaza Province, Mozambique, which was intended to stop the spread of AIDS. Gates said, “I’d like him to go there and see for himself the children who have contracted AIDS because he cut the funds.” In response to a clip from this interview circulating online, Musk immediately took to the X platform and called Gates “a huge fraudster.” In another post, the world’s richest man wrote, “The real reason Bill Gates is unhappy is that his organizations can no longer get billions of dollars in American taxpayers’ money.”
