Bill Gates And Donald Trump: Microsoft Founder Optimistic About Trump's Presidency

President-elect Donald Trump has his fair share of skeptics, but Bill Gates does not appear to be one of them. In an interview with CNBC, the billionaire managed to maintain an optimistic outlook toward a Trump presidency.

Gates had a conversation with President-elect Trump on Tuesday, the first time the two had ever communicated directly with one another. In an appearance on CNBC’s “Squawk Box,” the co-founder of Microsoft said he believes Trump has the opportunity to establish “American leadership through innovation.”

Gates managed to avoid rehashing too many concerns about Trump and how he ran his campaign, saying simply that Trump’s message often focuses on “where he sees things not as good as he'd like.”

Instead, the wealthy philanthropist opted to focus on the potential for positive outcomes the incoming President will be presented. Gates went so far as to compare Trump’s opportunity for innovation to the situation John F. Kennedy had when he took over the office.

“In the same way President Kennedy talked about the space mission and got the country behind that,” Gates said, “I think whether it's education or stopping epidemics, other health breakthroughs, finishing polio, and in this energy space, there can be a very upbeat message that his administration is going to organize things, get rid of regulatory barriers, and have American leadership through innovation be one of the things that he gets behind."

Gates said he believed Trump was receptive to his message and he is “sure there will be further conversation” between he and the President-elect.

In the same interview, Gates noted Trump was granted “a lot of flexibility” on the issues he addresses as President because he was elected for his leadership style and not for specific policies.

Gates avoided commenting on any of Trump’s appointments or policies, though he did gently suggest trading up trade agreements with countries like China would be harmful in the long term.

Trump invoked Gates on several occasions while campaigning for president, including a call for help from Gates to shut off parts of the internet.

“We’re losing a lot of people because of the Internet,” Trump said in December of last year. “We have to see Bill Gates and a lot of different people that really understand what’s happening. We have to talk to them about, maybe in certain areas, closing that internet up in some way.”

Trump is expected to meet with tech leaders on Dec. 14. The roundtable discussion will include Apple CEO Tim Cook, Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg, Alphabet CEO Larry Page, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, and others.