Bono has said that US presidential nominee Donald Trump could potentially “destroy” America.

In an interview with Charlie Rose on US network CBS, the U2 front man said Trump is “potentially the worst idea that ever happened to America”.

Bono said America is different from other countries because it is “an idea”, one which Trump is “trying to hijack”.

“That idea is bound up in justice and equality for all. I think he’s hijacked the party.

“I think he’s trying to hijack the idea of America. And I think it’s bigger than all of us. I think this is really dangerous.”

In a separate interview with ATTN, an online media company aimed at younger people, Bono has recalled the historic struggle of Irish immigrants to the United States in calling on the country’s political leaders to open its doors to Syrian refugees.

He said that to turn people away just because they are refugees was “a betrayal of the whole idea of America”.

“The promised land belongs to those who need it most. The Irish needed it. The Jews needed it. The Syrians now need it,” he said in an interview.

Asked about US political opposition to accepting refugees into the country, Bono said: “I’m Irish. It’s deeply offensive. We were economic refugees. This thing of a continent behaving like an island, this shrivel and pretend the world doesn’t exist, it’s not possible any more in a globalized world. It’s just not possible.”