U2 frontman Bono hit back at President Donald Trump’s “illegal campaign contribution” allegations against celebrities who made appearances in support of Kamala Harris’ ill-fated campaign.
During an episode of Jimmy Kimmel Live Tuesday night, the comedian jokingly asked the Irish rockstar, “Whose side are you on, Trump or Bruce Springsteen?”
The 65-year-old took a moment before responding: “I think there’s only one boss in America.”
Trump lambasted celebrities for their support of his Democratic rival during the 2024 election during a rant on TruthSocial earlier this month. In addition to Bono, his targets included Oprah, Beyoncé and Bruce Springsteen.
“HOW MUCH DID KAMALA HARRIS PAY BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN FOR HIS POOR PERFORMANCE DURING HER CAMPAIGN FOR PRESIDENT?”, Trump said. “WHY DID HE ACCEPT THAT MONEY IF HE IS SUCH A FAN OF HERS? ISN’T THAT A MAJOR AND ILLEGAL CAMPAIGN CONTRIBUTION? WHAT ABOUT BEYONCÉ? …AND HOW MUCH WENT TO OPRAH, AND BONO???
“I am going to call for a major investigation into this matter,” he added.
“I know the president at 1 a.m. or whatever that was is usually thinking about you, but two points I’ll make. One, to be in the company of Bruce Springsteen, Beyoncé, and Oprah — I play tambourine in that band.
“And two, U2 and I never paid or played a show to support any candidate from any party,” he added.
The With or Without You singer joked about the title of Trump’s social media platform.
“And you know it’s called Truth Social, it seems to be pretty antisocial and not very true a lot of the time.”
Bono has been on a media blitz recently to promote the documentary about his book tour, which coincided with the release of his memoir in 2022 and 2023, titled Surrender: 40 Songs, One Story
Bono later brought up the “One Campaign” — an activist group for the fight against HIV/AIDS and extreme poverty, which he said was a bipartisan group that included evangelical conservatives “who are very very very angry with the person that they voted into office.”
He explained that this was because of Trump’s cuts to USAID and the U.S. President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, known as PEPFAR.
“They are not happy, and there will be trouble,” Bono warned while speaking about the meteoric damage to HIV/AIDs research that is expected in the fallout of the cuts.
