President Trump unloaded on Bad Bunny's Super Bowl halftime performance, calling it "absolutely terrible" and "one of the worst, EVER" in a blistering Truth Social post that touched on everything from the show's content to the NFL's kickoff rule.
The critique landed with particular force given the context: just days earlier, Bad Bunny had used his Grammy acceptance speech to take a shot at the Trump administration's immigration enforcement, declaring "ICE out" before thanking God.
Trump did not mince words:
"The Super Bowl Halftime Show is absolutely terrible, one of the worst, EVER! It makes no sense, is an affront to the Greatness of America, and doesn't represent our standards of Success, Creativity, or Excellence. Nobody understands a word this guy is saying, and the dancing is disgusting, especially for young children that are watching from throughout the U.S.A., and all over the world."
According to Just the News, the collision between Trump and Bad Bunny didn't start at the Super Bowl. It started at the Grammys.
Bad Bunny, accepting his award last Sunday, opened not with gratitude but with a political statement aimed squarely at Immigration and Customs Enforcement:
"Before I say thanks to God, I'm gonna say: ICE out."
Two words. That's all it took to signal where the performer stood — not just on immigration policy, but on the broader question of whether federal law enforcement should be allowed to do its job. ICE enforces the law. That's not controversial unless you've decided the law itself is the problem.
Days later, the NFL handed Bad Bunny the biggest stage in American entertainment. The timing was not lost on anyone.
There's a pattern here that conservative audiences recognize instantly. An artist takes a politically charged stance against a sitting president's policies. The entertainment industry rewards it. The media celebrates it. And then anyone who objects gets told they're overreacting.
Trump, characteristically, refused to play along. He called the show a "slap in the face" to the country and predicted — accurately, if history is any guide — what would come next:
"This 'Show' is just a 'slap in the face' to our Country, which is setting new standards and records every single day — including the Best Stock Market and 401(k)s in History! There is nothing inspirational about this mess of a Halftime Show and watch, it will get great reviews from the Fake News Media, because they haven't got a clue of what is going on in the REAL WORLD — And, by the way, the NFL should immediately replace its ridiculous new Kickoff Rule."
The pivot to the kickoff rule is pure Trump — the man refuses to compartmentalize his grievances, and his supporters love him for it.
But the substantive point underneath the showmanship deserves attention. The Super Bowl halftime show reaches more American eyeballs in a single evening than almost any other cultural event. It is, for better or worse, a statement about what America celebrates. When that stage goes to a performer who just told federal law enforcement to get out, the programming choice carries weight whether the NFL acknowledges it or not.
The left will frame this as a story about Trump attacking a Latino artist. That framing is predictable and lazy. Trump's criticism targeted the quality of the performance and its appropriateness for a family audience — not the performer's ethnicity. His comment that "nobody understands a word this guy is saying" will be parsed endlessly, but the complaint about a halftime show being incomprehensible to its audience is not exactly new territory for Super Bowl viewers of any political persuasion.
The deeper issue is one the entertainment industry has never honestly grappled with: when you use America's largest shared cultural moments to push political messages, you forfeit the right to be surprised when those moments become political. Bad Bunny didn't just perform songs. He arrived on that stage days after publicly opposing immigration enforcement — a policy supported by a majority of Americans — and the NFL chose him anyway.
Trump's criticism, whatever you think of its tone, speaks to a frustration millions of Americans share. They watch their institutions — sports leagues, awards shows, broadcast networks — bend consistently in one ideological direction, and they're told it's not political. It's just art. It's just entertainment. It's just a halftime show.
It's never just a halftime show.
Trump's specific mention of "young children that are watching" touches a nerve that resonates well beyond partisan lines. The Super Bowl remains one of the few television events families watch together. Parents don't pre-screen the halftime show. They trust, perhaps naively at this point, that the NFL will keep it within bounds that don't require explaining to a seven-year-old.
That trust has eroded steadily over the years. Trump simply said what a lot of parents were already texting each other.
Strip away the noise, and two competing visions emerge. In one, a performer uses the Grammy stage to denounce immigration enforcement and the Super Bowl stage to — in Trump's telling — deliver a show that doesn't represent American excellence. In the other, a president points to a roaring stock market, and record 401(k)s and asks why the country's biggest cultural showcase doesn't reflect that energy.
One vision is about tearing down. The other is about building up. Americans get to decide which one they'd rather watch.
They already did, actually. Last November.