Melinda French Gates Has Been Crystal Clear About Her Thoughts On Donald Trump

When the divorce of Bill and Melinda Gates was announced in May 2021, the world was shocked. But now that a broader picture of what happened between the two, including revelations that Bill Gates was unfaithful and his close ties to Jeffrey Epstein, has come out, it's easy to understand why Melinda chose to end her marriage. Since her divorce, Melinda French Gates has become more vocal, expressing her political beliefs and her thoughts on the state of the world, including how she feels about Donald Trump. 

Bill and Melinda Gates first met Trump in 2016, and she was instantly creeped out by Trump's weird behavior involving their daughter. At the time, Melinda chose to keep her feelings private, but by 2024, she was more than happy to open up on CBS Mornings during the election, saying, "I absolutely am not voting for Trump" and explaining that it was Trump's actions — especially towards women — that she doesn't approve of. 

After the election, Melinda spoke to the Times about her thoughts on the world, and on Trump in particular. She explained that her focus shifted after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v Wade, saying, "I never thought my granddaughters would have fewer rights than I had." But it was Trump's decision to essentially shut down USAid, an organization that has been credited with saving over 90 million lives in two decades, that truly upset her. As she put it, "What does that say about values?" And while her ex-husband met with Trump in an attempt to save USAid, Melinda believes that trying to convince the president to change his ways would be pointless. 

In the same Times interview, Melinda French Gates discussed her shock at seeing tech giants like Jeff Bezos and Mark Zuckerberg kowtow to Donald Trump, saying, "I think sometimes people's true character gets tested. Sometimes we mistake a great business leader for also having some of the same values that we have. And let's be honest, some people don't always show their true colors, right?" She also discussed the actions of the billionaire class on CNN, saying that many of them "have values that they espouse [that] are just different than mine."

French Gates is a billionaire herself. According to Bloomberg, she has a personal net worth of $18.5 billion. But she appears to have a different outlook on how to use her wealth than some of her peers. In the CNN interview, she explained her stance, saying, "If you have a billion dollars, that's an absurd amount of wealth. You have a moral responsibility to give away at least half of it." In 2010, Bill and Melinda Gates started The Giving Pledge, a program that encourages the wealthiest people in the world to give at least 50% of their wealth to philanthropic causes. According to the organization, more than 250 of the richest people on the planet have signed the pledge. In 2024, Melinda resigned from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to instead focus on the issues that mattered most to her. At the time, she announced her plan to donate $1 billion over two years to support women's rights around the world through her own organization, Pivotal.