In recent weeks U2 front man Bono, who, due to his philanthropic work with his charity ONE, has traditionally tried to maintain good relations with both Democrats and Republicans in the US, has begun speaking his mind on the matter of Donald Trump.
His first tentative step, at a September conference hosted by Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to fundraise for AIDS prevention programs in underdeveloped countries, was to say that Trump is “not going to change my respect for the Republican Party or anything. It’s really his hijacking of it.”
A week later on "CBS This Morning," he called Trump “potentially the worst idea that ever happened to America.”
Now? He’s staged a full-on musical take-down of Trump, projected on a jumbotron on stage at a 16,000-person capacity arena.
That escalated quickly!
U2 was the headliner for Dreamfest, the concert portion of Dreamforce, the four-day tech conference hosted by cloud software giant Salesforce in San Francisco. The concert, held Wednesday night at the Cow Palace arena, raised over $10 million for the UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospitals in San Francisco and Oakland. Marc Benioff, the CEO of Salesforce, is both a friend of Bono’s and a Clinton supporter.
The Dublin rockstars played their big hits like “With or Without You” and “Beautiful Day,” but Bono also devoted a few minutes of the performance to engage in a heated dialogue of sorts with recorded footage of Donald Trump.
The Republican nominee for president appeared on a massive screen, in footage from a campaign speech, declaring “I’m really rich.”
Bono assured the Trump projection that he was very glad for him, but asked “Candidate, what’s your vision for this great nation?” (Throughout the scene, Bono did not refer to Trump by name.)
He continued with the unusual political performance art as his bandmates played in the background, and the Trump projection talked about his plans to build border wall and have Mexico pay for it.
“Good people are not going to stay silent while you run off with the American dream!” Bono continued.
“All right, candidate?”
“You’re fired!”
Bono also recited a few lines from the Emma Lazarus sonnet that appears on the base of the Statue of Liberty: “Give me your tired, your poor / your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.”
The performance, according to video later posted to U2’s social media accounts, is titled “Liberty.”
Read more: Irish leader doesn’t regret calling Trump “racist and dangerous”
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