Bill Gates says he can’t make up for Donald Trump’s aid cuts

Bill Gates has warned his foundation won’t be able to plug the gap left by massive cuts to the US foreign aid budget by President Donald Trump.

Ahead of the UN General Assembly on Tuesday, Mr Gates told the Guardian that the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and other similar charitable organisations will not have deep enough pockets “to balance a cut in a rich country’s generosity.”

“We don’t have some special stash that we keep in case some government is less generous,” Mr Gates said.

“We’re spending at our maximum capacity because we know that every $1,000 we spend, we’re saving an additional life. So if net, from all governments as a whole, you get big cuts, there’s no other sector that has fair capacity to step up.”

In April, Mr Trump announced a 31 per cent cut to the US international affairs budget to take effect next year. Some of the budget goes to the UN, World Bank and other global organisations. However, the most drastic cuts will be made to overseas development assistance, which funds projects in less wealthy countries.

The US aid budget currently stands at $30bn (£23bn), more than any other country in the world, although it amounts to less than 1 per cent of the $3.8 trillion federal budget.

Research published on Wednesday by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, pointed to the huge progress that has been made in reducing extreme poverty. However, the report warned that budget cuts risk jeopardising future gains.

A 10 per cent cut in global funding for HIV treatment could lead to more than 5 million additional deaths by 2030, the researchers estimate.

Mr Trump’s budget for global health programmes includes a 24 per cent cut to efforts to combat HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria.

Mr Gates recently made a $4.6bn donation to the foundation he started with his wife Melinda in 2000. The organisation spent over $4bn last year on supporting a range of causes.