[312] The U.S. government had spent some $44 billion on the project since 2003 (a figure that includes $7 billion contributed to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria, a multilateral organization),[313] which saved an estimated five million lives.[314] According to The New York Times correspondent Peter Baker, "Bush did more to stop AIDS and more to help Africa than any president before or since."[314]

Security incidents
Main article: Security incidents involving George W. Bush
2001 White House shooting
On February 7, 2001, while Bush was in the residence area of the White House, Robert Pickett, standing outside the perimeter fence, discharged a number of shots from a Taurus .38 Special revolver "in the general direction" of the White House. Pickett was shot in the knee by a U.S. Secret Service agent and arrested. Furthermore, he was initially charged with discharging a firearm during a crime, carrying a 10-year mandatory sentence, but following a plea agreement, Pickett instead entered a guilty plea to a firearms violation and an Alford plea to assaulting a federal officer. He was sentenced to three years at the Federal Medical Center, Rochester followed by three years of probation.