“THE REPUBLIC OF Ireland has given us many great gifts but none greater than our guests tonight…”
That’s how Jimmy Kimmel began his introduction for U2 last night – in a show dedicated to the band currently on the American leg of their Joshua Tree Tour.
And – rarely for a TV interview – Jimmy had all four of the lads on the couch for an in-depth half hour-long chat
And among all the topics dealt with, it was Bono’s comments on President Donald Trump that have gained the most traction today
Asked about his extensive work with AIDS victims and high level politicians, Kimmel inquired as to whether the new President would be somebody Bono would like to work with one day:
“We work with everybody… we have conservatives and liberals and our thinking is that you just need one thing to agree with somebody on to start a conversation – and the fight against extreme poverty, we thought, was worth a conversation with anybody… however”
Following a few laughs at that “however”, Bono moved on to President Trump in office:
Everything is different now, it really is. The game has changed. I have so much respect for a lot of people who voted President Trump into office. I really understand, I really understand their anger – I have some of that anger myself coming from where we came from. I understand people being disillusioned with the political process and they think that the body politic is sick and whatever, but I don’t think the President, if you’ll allow me to say this, I don’t think he’s the cure for this problem and I think he might even make it worse.
And then laid out his major issue with him as President:
“I don’t think there is any evidence in his life that he has the people who are hardest hit in mind and that really saddens me. I know he likes to see their faces in the crowd but I don’t think he wants to know who they are when they go home”
Some people at home were heaping praise on him for his thoughtful and well-delivered comments
The full interview – where they debut their new song The Little Things That Give You Away and belt out the stone cold classic I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For – is available here.
While the band also paid their own special tribute to the Manchester disaster
Which could be summed up by this quote by Bono:
They hate music. They hate women. They even hate little girls. They hate everything that we love. And, you know, the worst of humanity was on view in Manchester last night, but so was the best as people took perfect strangers into their houses and queued up blood banks.
