Trump election caused U2 to delay new album: 'Suddenly the world changed

Legendary rock band U2 had just put the finishing touches on its upcoming album, "Songs of Experience," late last year "when suddenly the world changed," guitarist The Edge told Rolling Stone.

In other words, he said, Republican Donald Trump was elected U.S. president: "Now, as I think you'd agree, the world is a different place."

"We just went, 'Hold on a second – we've got to give ourselves a moment to think about this record and about how it relates to what's going on in the world,'" The Edge told Rolling Stone, adding that "it's like a pendulum has suddenly just taken a huge swing in the other direction."

While U2 has long been known for spiritual themes in its lyrics — due in no small part to singer Bono's unabashed Christian faith — the band as a whole is decidedly liberal socially and politically. And they're no fans of Trump.

Here's a clip from the band's San Francisco concert just a month before Trump was elected:

Now with Trump's inauguration just over a week away, U2 decided to delay the completion of "Songs of Experience," The Edge told Rolling Stone, "just to really think about it one more time before putting it out, just to make sure that it really was what we wanted to say."

What might change on the album? The Edge told the magazine the group might compose a couple of new songs given their opportunity "to reconsider everything."

U2 is also coming to America in mid-2017 for a tour marking the 30th anniversary of "The Joshua Tree" album, which sealed the group's fame around the world.

“It seems like we have come full circle from when 'The Joshua Tree' songs were originally written," The Edge said on the U2 website, "with global upheaval, extreme right-wing politics and some fundamental human rights at risk."

He added to Rolling Stone that it was "the Reagan-Thatcher era of British and U.S. politics. It was a period when there was a lot of unrest. Thatcher was in the throes of trying to put down the miners' strike; there was all kinds of shenanigans going on in Central America. It feels like we're right back there in a way."

(H/T: The Hill)