GATES COUPLE TO FOCUS ON POVERTY

KIRKLAND, WASH. Bill and Melinda Gates, as the world’s top philanthropists, are rethinking their work in America as they confront what they consider the country’s growing inequity and a president they disagree with more than any other.

The couple said they’re concerned about President Donald Trump’s “America first” worldview. They’ve made known their differences with the president and his party on issues including foreign aid, taxes and protections for immigrant youth.

And they said they’re now digging into the layers of U.S. poverty that they haven’t been deeply involved with at the national level, including employment, race, housing, mental health, incarceration and substance abuse.

“We are not seeing the mobility out of poverty in the same way in the United States as it used to exist,” Melinda Gates said.