In a moment that drew both commendation and fierce criticism, Bono accepted the US Presidential Medal of Freedom from Joe Biden earlier this year — and now, with the heat of backlash simmering, the U2 frontman has offered a robust defence of his decision.
For Bono, this wasn’t about personal glory. It wasn’t about smiling for the cameras or basking in transatlantic political theatre. According to the man himself, the gesture was “deeply ironic” — and entirely deliberate. Speaking on RTÉ’s Brendan O’Connor Show, he clarified that he took the award “on behalf of all those people who don’t get medals: the activists, the people who are getting killed now in Gaza.” It’s the kind of sentence that can’t be misinterpreted — raw, pointed, and politically potent.
The criticism, of course, came hard and fast. For many, accepting any honour from an administration backing Israeli military action felt hypocritical, especially as images and reports from Gaza grew more horrific by the day. Bono, it seemed to them, had picked the wrong time to smile beside power. But his response was far from dismissive. In fact, he framed the outrage as part of what he called “competitive empathy” — an increasingly common impulse where moral credibility becomes a contest: “I feel this wound more than you, and my emergency is more important than your emergency.”
This wasn’t evasive. It was direct. Bono’s entire career has been defined by his attempts to bridge idealism with realism, and in this case, he insisted on viewing the context with nuance. According to Bono, the aid and arms packages for Israel were politically bound to Ukraine’s defence. “Biden knew he wouldn’t get it through Congress” otherwise, he said, acknowledging the brutal pragmatism of governance without ever condoning its consequences.
There’s no moral satisfaction to be found in this story. And Bono knows that. He’s not asking to be lionised. He’s been egged, he reminds us, for standing with George W. Bush during the fight against AIDS even as Bush waged war in Iraq. Bono’s not interested in applause — he’s interested in outcomes. “When I was younger I had a lot of rage... but, as I got older, I demanded more of myself. I looked towards outcomes.”
You might not agree with him. You might think accepting that medal was a mistake. But you cannot accuse him of apathy, ignorance, or cowardice. If anything, Bono’s willingness to wade into fire — again — is, if nothing else, consistent. And if you’re still unsure? That might be the point.
