Trump casually offered Bill Gates a job. Gates turned him down.
Bill Gates has quite the impressive résumé: founder of Microsoft, billionaire philanthropist, father of three. But in a recent conversation, President Trump apparently offered him the chance to further pad out his "Achievements" section.
In a meeting with the president last month, Gates mentioned to Trump that the White House should consider filling the post of science adviser, which currently sits empty. Per Gates, Trump responded with a maybe-serious job offer. In an interview with Stat published Monday, Gates recreated the scene:
"I mentioned: ‘Hey, maybe we should have a science adviser.'"
And?
"He said: Did I want to be the science adviser?"
That's not the answer Gates was looking for. "That's not a good use of my time," Gates recalled telling the president. [Stat]
Gates cautions that he's not 100 percent sure Trump was actually serious about the offer. "It was a friendly thing," Gates told Stat. "He was being friendly." Gates additionally revealed that during his 40-minute conversation with Trump, he implored the president to throw his weight behind a universal flu vaccine. Trump was "super interested" in the idea, Gates said, and immediately called the head of the FDA — on speakerphone — for more information. Read more at Stat.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
-
The 8 best horror series of all timethe week recommends Lost voyages, haunted houses and the best scares in television history
-
Breaking news: the rise of ‘smash hit’ rage roomsUnder the Radar Paying to vent your anger on furniture is all the rage but experts are sceptical
-
Did markets’ ‘Sell America’ trade force Trump to TACO on Greenland?Today’s Big Question Investors navigate a suddenly uncertain global economy
-
The billionaires’ wealth tax: a catastrophe for California?Talking Point Peter Thiel and Larry Page preparing to change state residency
-
Hegseth moves to demote Sen. Kelly over videospeed read Retired Navy fighter pilot Mark Kelly appeared in a video reminding military service members that they can ‘refuse illegal orders’
-
Trump says US ‘in charge’ of Venezuela after Maduro grabSpeed Read The American president claims the US will ‘run’ Venezuela for an unspecified amount of time, contradicting a statement from Secretary of State Marco Rubio
-
Bari Weiss’ ‘60 Minutes’ scandal is about more than one reportIN THE SPOTLIGHT By blocking an approved segment on a controversial prison holding US deportees in El Salvador, the editor-in-chief of CBS News has become the main story
-
CBS pulls ‘60 Minutes’ report on Trump deporteesSpeed Read An investigation into the deportations of Venezuelan migrants to El Salvador’s notorious prison was scrapped
-
Trump administration posts sliver of Epstein filesSpeed Read Many of the Justice Department documents were heavily redacted, though new photos of both Donald Trump and Bill Clinton emerged
-
Trump HHS moves to end care for trans youthSpeed Read The administration is making sweeping proposals that would eliminate gender-affirming care for Americans under age 18
-
Jack Smith tells House of ‘proof’ of Trump’s crimesSpeed Read President Donald Trump ‘engaged in a criminal scheme to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election,’ hoarded classified documents and ‘repeatedly tried to obstruct justice’
