Bono Is "Very Angry" at Donald Trump's Budget Cuts to Foreign Aid Relief

Bono isn’t afraid to speak his mind. In our new cover story, the U2 singer and AIDS relief advocate tells Esquire that he's “very angry” with the state of the world today. “The United States has been a promised land to a lot of people," he says, "but it looks like it’s about to break that promise."

ONE, Bono’s nonprofit organization, was instrumental in helping to pass the largest healthcare intervention for AIDS relief in U.S. history in 2003. However, America’s far-right leadership is a different story today. The second Trump administration's first 100 days saw substantial cuts to global relief efforts.

“The most unbelievable carnage imaginable is happening to our work,” Bono says. “These are the brightest, best people, who’ve given their lives trying to serve the poorest, most vulnerable communities, and they’ve just been thrown in the dumpster.”

Historically, the U2 frontman hasn’t been afraid to work across the aisle. He controversially worked with George W. Bush to pass the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief program, even against criticism from the left. But according to a recent report, the program states that it is responsible for saving over 26 million lives since its creation.

“I describe myself as a radical centrist,” Bono says. “And I am sure that that sounds absurd, but I am also sure that is how we get through the future. What’s being served up on the far left and on the far right is not where we need to be.”

AP News reported in February that the Trump Administration's dismantling of U.S. foreign aid eliminated $60 billion in U.S. assistance. "Widely successful USAID programs credited with containing outbreaks of Ebola and other threats and saving more than 20 million lives in Africa through HIV and AIDS treatment are among those still cut off from agency funds," the report stated. Meanwhile, ONE is pushing lawmakers to oppose the President’s budget request for 2026. Critics warn that the budget bill—currently headed for a vote in the Senate—would provide even greater strain on hospitals and health centers.

Bono, calling on the U.S. to keep its promise to send foreign aid to Africa in 2003.

"I can understand people coming to a place where they say, ‘I don’t see why the United States has to pay for aid, drugs, or anything else in places far away where there is no vote,’" Bono admits, but he believes that such thinking “makes a lot of geopolitical troubles for you down the road.”

“The delight that was taken in the destruction of life-support systems—pulling them out of the wall—that’s the clue to the true nature of this,” Bono continues. “Evil walks amongst us, but it is rarely this obvious.”

Still, Bono remains hopeful that America will turn the ship around. "I believe the old adage that if you give Americans the facts, that they will make the right choice,” he says. “Problem is getting them the facts, especially right now."