Bono says he is ‘not up to’ working with Trump on humanitarian causes despite invitation - The Independent

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Bono has admitted he does not believe he could make a difference working with Donald Trump’s administration, despite having previously helped persuade senior US politicians to back humanitarian causes.

The U2 singer, 66, has spent decades campaigning on issues including global poverty and HIV/Aids, even building relationships with Republican figures whose politics differed sharply from his own.

In a new interview, he revealed he had been invited to the White House during Trump's presidency but did not feel equipped to negotiate with the current administration or convince its members to support his causes.

He told The Guardian: “There’s a permission you need to feel to do a certain task and if you feel it spiritually. You feel like: I think I might be able to help here.

“[With the Trump administration], I have been invited, but I know I’m not up to that, I don’t have the ability to negotiate [with them], it’s too much.

“[I don’t have] a plan, a strategy for successful action, a particular original idea I could get past them. Maybe just leave that to someone else. I don’t feel … the leading, is that the word? That thing where you think you know what to do.”

Last year, the Trump administration disrupted the funding for the Aids programme Bono had helped initiate, and the “Vertigo” singer’s bandmate, Larry Mullen Jr., admitted the 66-year-old rocker was left in a state of “complete shock” by the decision.

Mullen said: “When money was taken away from Aids, from people in Africa, I think to be honest you were in a state of complete shock and dismay at what you were seeing. And these things take enormous amounts of time and energy and you can’t do everything, you can only do a certain amount.”

Bono insisted the current political climate in the U.S. is completely different from any previous right-wing administration.

He said: “It’s a new world. This is different. There’s a whiff, there’s a honk, and we’re all just trying to discern it.

“There’s a brand new dance and we do know its name. It’s a little… fascistic. And it needs a different response.”

Bono made his feelings toward the president clear during an appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live! last year.

The host asked the “With or Without You” singer: “Whose side are you on, Trump or Bruce Springsteen?”

Bono took a moment before responding: “I think there’s only one boss in America.”