Bono fires Trump at U2 show

U2 frontman Bono has some questions for Donald Trump, so he sought answers from sound bites of the Manhattan billionaire at a recent show.

A video posted to the band’s Facebook page makes no secret of Bono’s distaste for the Republican presidential nominee. In it, Bono engages in a back-and-forth with Trump, who is referred to only as “candidate,” using clips of the reality TV star’s speeches for his answers.


“I’m really rich. Turned out, I’m much richer than anybody ever knew. Billions and billions and millions of dollars,” Trump says on a massive video screen above the stage, clipping together statements from multiple speeches. With his band playing behind him, Bono replies “and, and, and your point is?”

On-screen Trump repeats his line about being rich, prompting Bono to ask, “Well, look, we’re very glad for you, candidate. Sincerely, we are. Only real question we have for you this evening: What is your vision for this great nation?” That is followed by Trump’s oft-repeated pledge to build a wall along America’s southern border and force Mexico to pay for it, prompting Bono to ask if Trump’s wall would be “like the Berlin Wall? Like the Great Wall of China?”

“Now candidate, you understand it’s not just Mexican people who are going to have a problem with this great wall of yours. It’s everyone who loves the idea of America. Like the Irish, for example. Or the French. Or the Brazilians,” he said, half asking, half singing as he quoted and paraphrased Emma Lazarus’ poem “The New Colossus,” which is inscribed on the Statue of Liberty. “Everyone who loves the idea of America, everyone who believes what they read at the foot of the bottom of the Statue of Liberty. Give me your tired. Your poor. Your huddled masses, yearning to break free. Give me your tired. Your poor. Your huddled masses, yearning to breathe free.”

Bono continues his exchange with video Trump, asking the GOP nominee if he means “all of us” when he said of undocumented immigrants, “if I win, they’re going back.” The clip of Trump promising that they’re going back plays again, to which Bono says, “Now, candidate, good people are not going to stay silent while you run off with the American dream. All right, candidate? You hear me, candidate? You’re fired.”

The video continues on, with Bono asking the video monitor if Trump was talking about band members The Edge, Larry Mullen Jr. and Adam Clayton when he said, “You know what they used to do guys like that? They’d be carried out on a stretcher, folks.”

The clip finishes with footage of Trump repeating “build that wall” over and over, with Bono speaking over it — “and inside, it’s America. Fortress, fortress America" — as the band plays the song "Bullet the Blue Sky."