Bruce Springsteen is the latest celebrity in the crosshairs of Donald Trump’s rage, after The Boss kicked off his latest tour by calling the president “corrupt, incompetent and treasonous.” But at least he’s got Bono on his side.
The U2 singer stopped by “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” on Tuesday night, in support of his new film “Bono: Stories of Surrender,” which made its debut at the Cannes Film Festival this year. During the interview, the ABC host took the opportunity to ask whose side Bono is on: Trump or Springsteen’s.
After a long pause to weigh his answer, Bono offered a cheeky response: “I think there’s only one Boss in America.”
Kimmel then pointed out that Bono himself drew some of the president’s ire in a recent post on Truth Social, in which he called for an investigation into multiple celebrities, including Springsteen.
“HOW MUCH DID KAMALA HARRIS PAY BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN FOR HIS POOR PERFORMANCE DURING HER CAMPAIGN FOR PRESIDENT? WHY DID HE ACCEPT THAT MONEY IF HE IS SUCH A FAN OF HERS?” Trump wrote in his screed. “ISN’T THAT A MAJOR AND ILLEGAL CAMPAIGN CONTRIBUTION? WHAT ABOUT BEYONCÉ? …AND HOW MUCH WENT TO OPRAH, AND BONO???”
At that, Bono first offered a sort of apology to Kimmel, joking that the ABC host is usually the one to occupy that real estate in Trump’s mind.
“I don’t want to cut in on your action,” Bono joked. “Because, I know the president, at 1 a.m. or 1:30 or whatever that was, is usually thinking about you. But, two points I’ll make.”
The first of those points was that Bono was thrilled to be in the same sentence as Beyoncé, Oprah and Springsteen, and that he’d happily play tambourine in a band with them. The second was more of a serious response.
“U2 and I have never played a show to support any candidate from any party,” he explained. “That has never happened. And, you know it’s called Truth Social. Seems to be pretty anti-social and it’s not very true a lot of the time.”
The singer also offered up a possibility as to why he was included in Trump’s rant, noting that he co-founded The ONE Campaign, which bills itself as a “nonpartisan organization advocating for the investments needed to create economic opportunities and healthier lives in Africa.”
“We’ve got a lot of very religious Catholics, evangelicals, conservatives, who are very, very, very angry with the person that they voted into office,” Bono said. “Having demolished instruments of mercy and compassion, like USAID or PEPFAR, which had saved 26 million lives of people who had AIDS around the world.”
“That’s the America that we love, that’s the America that we all want to be part of,” he continued. “They are not happy and there will be trouble.”
You can watch Bono’s full appearance on “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” in the video above.
