Bono has criticised cuts to the US Agency for International Development (USAid) budget in a lengthy interview with influential US podcaster Joe Rogan.
He cited academic research by Brooke Nichols, a mathematician and professor of infectious diseases at Boston University, that suggests some 300,000 people have died as a consequence of the cuts.
The U2 frontman’s comments riled billionaire Elon Musk, whose department of government efficiency (Doge) implemented the dismantling of USAid. Mr Musk formally exited his role in the Trump administration on Wednesday.
On his social media platform X, the Tesla chief executive responded to Bono’s remarks on the subject by calling him a “liar/idiot” and saying “zero people have died”.
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During a three-hour interview on The Joe Rogan Experience, which is streaming service Spotify’s top podcast, Bono talked about his role in encouraging former US president George W Bush to increase overseas aid spending, particularly on antiretroviral drugs intended to combat Aids.
He said a broad coalition of support for the aid spending was built and it greatly benefited the US’s image overseas. Now, he said, “all of that was torn down without a heads-up, without any notice, because people thought foreign aid was like 10 per cent of the budget or 20 per cent and it was doing things that it shouldn’t have been doing”.
“I’m sure there was some waste ... but I can tell you as a person who saw what the United States was doing around the world, I saw America display itself at its finest,” he said.
“I remember being in the Oval Office with president Bush and we had these antiretroviral drugs. I said, paint them red, white and blue, Mr President, because these are the best advertisements for America there’ll ever be.”
He said that to celebrate the slashing of USAid, as some have, is an act of “evil”. He said it felt like these vital programmes were vandalised and destroyed “with glee”.
Bono maintained an amiable tone with Mr Rogan throughout the interview, which aired on Friday. Mr Rogan, who has previously been accused of spreading misinformation during some of his podcasts, endorsed Donald Trump in advance of the 2024 US presidential election.
The bulk of the discussion was concerned with Bono’s new film Stories of Surrender, his book Surrender, U2, and the band’s upcoming album.
