Later in May 2025 Elon Musk publicly rejected Bill Gates's accusation that cuts to the U.S. Agency for International Development would cause the deaths of the world's poorest children, dismissing the claim as unsubstantiated. Musk argued that USAID programs found to be genuinely useful had been transferred to the State Department rather than deleted, and contended that organizations had often failed to provide evidence the spending actually saved lives. The exchange marked a sharp, personal clash between two of the world's wealthiest men over the consequences of dismantling American foreign aid. Independent analysts warned that the abrupt funding withdrawal posed real risks to global health programs regardless of the dispute.