--- title: Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation Letter Defends International Aid description: Bill and Melinda Gates used their annual Gates Foundation letter to defend international aid, the day after Trump's budget proposed cuts. canonical: https://time.com/5155672/bill-melinda-gates-letter-trump-budget/ author: Jamie Ducharme article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2018-02-13T17:20:28.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:53:37.597Z article:section: Health og:title: Bill and Melinda Gates: Trump's Proposed Cuts to Foreign Aid Will Lead to More Deaths og:description: 'The world is not a safer place when more people are sick or hungry' og:url: https://time.com/5155672/bill-melinda-gates-letter-trump-budget/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8ca2eb412dcaa686/69892750656a3fe637bd3814/bill-melinda-gates.jpeg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: French President Receives Bill Gates, the co-Founder of the Microsoft Company At Elysee Palace og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Bill and Melinda Gates: Trump's Proposed Cuts to Foreign Aid Will Lead to More Deaths twitter:description: 'The world is not a safer place when more people are sick or hungry' twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8ca2eb412dcaa686/69892750656a3fe637bd3814/bill-melinda-gates.jpeg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Bill and Melinda Gates: Trump's Proposed Cuts to Foreign Aid Will Lead to More Deaths ## Video: President Trump's Budget Would Add $7.2 Trillion in Federal Deficits Over 10 Years [Watch (HLS stream): President Trump's Budget Would Add $7.2 Trillion in Federal Deficits Over 10 Years](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/9zqFuKYI.m3u8) (1:24)  _Published 2018-02-12. President Donald Trump unveiled a $4.4 trillion budget for next year that heralds an era of $1 trillion-plus federal deficits and — unlike the plan he released last year — never comes close to promising a balanced ledger even after 10 years_  by [Jamie Ducharme](https://time.com/author/jamie-ducharme/)  ## Jamie Ducharme Ducharme is a contributor to TIME. Feb 13, 2018 5:20 PM UTC  Bill and Melinda Gates pose in front of the Elysee Palace before receiving the award of Commander of the Legion of Honor. Bill and Melinda Gates pose in front of the Elysee Palace before receiving the award of Commander of the Legion of Honor.Frederic Stevens—Getty Images  by [Jamie Ducharme](https://time.com/author/jamie-ducharme/)  ## Jamie Ducharme Ducharme is a contributor to TIME. Feb 13, 2018 5:20 PM UTC Bill and Melinda Gates used their [10th annual letter](https://www.gatesnotes.com/2018-Annual-Letter?utm%5Fsource=newsletter&utm%5Fmedium=email&utm%5Fcampaign=&stream=top-stories) to [answer tough questions about their work at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation](http://time.com/5155131/bill-melinda-gates-annual-letter-trump/) — and to defend funding for health work and international aid, just a day after President Donald Trump’s budget proposed slashing resources to these areas. The Gates Foundation donates billions of dollars to health and humanitarian causes including vaccine delivery, child and maternal health as well as infectious disease prevention. “These efforts save lives,” Bill Gates wrote in the letter, which was published Tuesday. “They also create U.S. jobs. And they make Americans more secure by making poor countries more stable and stopping disease outbreaks before they become pandemics. The world is not a safer place when more people are sick or hungry.” Gates also mentioned the “severe cuts” proposed by Trump, apparently in reference to the president’s [suggested 2019 budget](https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/budget-fy2019.pdf), which was released on Monday. Under the budget — which is still subject to Congressional approval — the Department of State and USAID, the government’s foreign assistance program, would see a $9 billion drop in funding, a 26% decrease from 2017\. The budget did, however, earmark funds for fighting HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria, and to support some family planning initiatives. The philosophy behind these decisions, according to the budget, is to “encourage and advance partner countries’ self-reliance in order to become tomorrow’s trading and security partners.” Gates, in his letter, takes a different stance. “If the U.S. cuts back on its investments abroad,” Gates wrote, “people in other countries will die, and Americans will be worse off.” Before the Gates letter was published, [Melina Gates also spoke out against the Trump administration’s](http://time.com/5154450/melinda-gates-donald-trump-budget/) “misguided” take on global health and development. “Budgets are a reflection of our priorities,” she wrote in a statement. “When we cut funding for the programs that are keeping women and children alive, it sends a signal to the world that we do not care about their lives or futures.” She continued along that vein in the Gates Foundation letter. “The sanctity of each individual, regardless of race, religion, sexual orientation, or gender, is part of our country’s spirit,” she wrote. “The president has a responsibility to set a good example and empower all Americans through his statements and his policies.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5155672/bill-melinda-gates-letter-trump-budget/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5155672/bill-melinda-gates-letter-trump-budget/"},"headline":"Bill and Melinda Gates: Trump's Proposed Cuts to Foreign Aid Will Lead to More Deaths","datePublished":"2018-02-13T17:20:28.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-04T07:53:37.597Z","description":"'The world is not a safer place when more people are sick or hungry'","url":"https://time.com/5155672/bill-melinda-gates-letter-trump-budget/","keywords":["philanthropy","onetime","healthytime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8ca2eb412dcaa686/69892750656a3fe637bd3814/bill-melinda-gates.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Jamie Ducharme","jobTitle":"Ducharme is a contributor to TIME.","url":"https://time.com/author/jamie-ducharme/"}],"articleSection":"Health","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8ca2eb412dcaa686/69892750656a3fe637bd3814/bill-melinda-gates.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"French President Receives Bill Gates, the co-Founder of the Microsoft Company At Elysee Palace","caption":"French President Receives Bill Gates, the co-Founder of the Microsoft Company At Elysee Palace","creditText":"Frederic Stevens—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/health/","name":"Health"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/philanthropy/","name":"philanthropy"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5155672/bill-melinda-gates-letter-trump-budget/","name":"Bill and Melinda Gates: Trump's Proposed Cuts to Foreign Aid Will Lead to More Deaths"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"President Trump's Budget Would Add $7.2 Trillion in Federal Deficits Over 10 Years","description":"President Donald Trump unveiled a $4.4 trillion budget for next year that heralds an era of $1 trillion-plus federal deficits and — unlike the plan he released last year — never comes close to promising a balanced ledger even after 10 years","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/9zqFuKYI/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2018-02-12T18:14:04.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/9zqFuKYI.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/5155672/bill-melinda-gates-letter-trump-budget/","duration":"PT1M24S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/5155672/bill-melinda-gates-letter-trump-budget/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```