U2’s well-known lead singer Bono has always been very vocal — and now he’s focusing on two of the most discussed leaders in the world: Donald Trump and Elon Musk.
In a bold statement, the rock star slammed DOGE cuts as “pure evil.”
It didn’t take long for Tesla billionaire Elon Musk to hit back — and his response was anything but polite.
Donald Trump is no stranger to criticism — but recently, it’s two of the biggest names in music who are stepping up. Bruce Springsteen, famous for his strong American values, has been making pointed remarks about the former president during his current tour.
From the stage, The Boss got the crowd fired up with a strong criticism:
“In America, the richest people are finding happiness in ignoring the world’s poorest children, leaving them to suffer and die. This is happening right now. In my country, they’re taking cruel pleasure in the pain they inflict on loyal American workers.”]} }
Took aim at DOGE
Now, Springsteen isn’t the only one speaking out — U2’s Bono has joined in, taking jabs not only at Trump but also at Elon Musk, the big guy behind Tesla and SpaceX.
In a three-hour chat on The Joe Rogan Experience, Bono criticized the controversial Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE for short, which was a project from the Trump era that Musk used to lead.
Musk, who got pretty close to Trump during his campaign, was in charge of DOGE — a group aimed at cutting down on government spending. But just this month, he unexpectedly pulled back, sharing on his platform X (which used to be Twitter):
“As my time as a Special Government Employee wraps up, I want to thank President @realDonaldTrump for letting me help reduce wasteful spending.”
“The @DOGE mission will keep getting stronger as it becomes a normal part of how the government works.”
But Bono wasn’t impressed. On Rogan’s show, the U2 frontman pointed to research from Boston University, claiming the DOGE cuts could have catastrophic global consequences.
“There’s food rotting in boats, in warehouses – 50,000 tons of it,” he said. “The people who knew the codes, who were responsible for distributing that aid, were fired. That’s not America, is it?”
Musk’s brutal response
According to the research that Bono mentioned, those budget cuts might result in more than 300,000 deaths around the globe.
Elon Musk was not happy about the claims. He responded on X, calling Bono:
“Such a liar” and an “idiot,”
…and completely denying that any deaths are linked to DOGE:
“Zero people have died” because of the cuts to USAID.
He didn’t stop there. Musk threw in another insult:
“South Park made fun of Bono as the biggest s*** in the world. They were right.”
Even with all the name-calling, Musk has recently expressed his annoyance with Trump’s new legislative effort: a big budget plan called the Big, Beautiful Bill. This bill has significant tax cuts and more military funding, while cutting back on federal help for health and energy programs.
Speaking to CBS Sunday Morning, Musk admitted:
“I was disappointed to see the massive spending bill, frankly, which increases the budget deficit, not just decreases it, and undermines the work that the DOGE team is doing.”
”The whipping boy for everything”
He added pointedly:
“I think a bill can be big or it can be beautiful, but I don’t know if it can be both.”
In an interview with The Washington Post, Musk went even further, claiming DOGE had become an easy target:
“DOGE is just becoming the whipping boy for everything. So, like, something bad would happen anywhere, and we would get blamed for it even if we had nothing to do with it.”
“The federal bureaucracy situation is much worse than I realized. I thought there were problems, but it sure is an uphill battle trying to improve things in DC, to say the least.”