Trump Asked Bill Gates the Difference Between HIV and HPV Not Once But TWICE

Hi, happy Friday. Turns out, the president of the United States—who also happens to be a father, husband, world leader, and CEO—doesn’t know what HIV is, which at this point sounds about right.

On Thursday, MSNBC’s All in with Chris Hayes aired footage of a recent Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation meeting, where Bill Gates fielded a few question from the audience.

At one point, Gates described meetings he had with Trump in Trump Tower, where Gates suggested “accelerating progress toward an HIV vaccine,” according to NBC.

Gates said, “In both of those two meetings he asked me if vaccines weren’t a bad thing because he was considering a commission to look into ill-effects of vaccines. And somebody, Robert Kennedy Jr., was advising him that vaccines were causing bad things and I said, ‘No, that is a dead end, that would be a bad thing, do not do that.’”

And then Gates said, “Both times he wanted to know the difference between HIV and HPV and so I was able to explain that those are rarely confused with each other.”

First, why is President Trump asking Bill Gates the difference between HIV and HPV? Sure, Gates is a genius and a billionaire, but doesn’t Trump have a doctor he can ask these questions to? Second, how does Trump, a 71-year-old man, not know the difference between these two distinctly different acronyms? And third, why did he have to ask Gates this question twice?

In case Trump needs to hear it a third time, and has decided to come to ELLE.com for the answer, here’s a recap: HPV is the human papillomavirus, the most commonly sexually transmitted infection, which can cause problems like genital warts and cancers. HIV, or human immunodeficiency virus, is a virus that attacks one’s immune system and can lead to AIDS. There is no known cure for HIV.

If Trump’s ignorance about common medical issues isn’t concerning enough, Gates also described how he first met Trump back in 2016, and apparently Trump knew quite a bit about Gates’ daughter.

“He knew my daughter, Jennifer, because Trump has this horse show thing down in Florida,” he said. “He went up and talked to Jen and was being super nice. And then around 20 minutes later he flew in on a helicopter to the same place. So clearly he had been driven away and he wanted to make a grand entrance on a helicopter… Anyway, so when I first talked to him it was actually kind of scary how much he knew about my daughter’s appearance. [Gates’ wife] Melinda did not like that too well.”

Neither would I, Melinda. Neither would I.