U.S. President Donald Trump reignited a familiar culture clash on Super Bowl Sunday, blasting Bad Bunny’s halftime show as “absolutely terrible” just hours after the Puerto Rican superstar delivered a historic, Spanish-language performance on one of sports’ biggest stages.
Bad Bunny, born Benito Antonio Martinez Ocasio, headlined the Super Bowl LX halftime show at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, California, becoming the first Latino solo artist to lead the event and the first to perform almost entirely in Spanish.
The roughly 13-minute set leaned heavily into reggaeton rhythms, Puerto Rican imagery and songs from his Grammy-winning album Debi Tirar Mas Fotos, which claimed Album of the Year just a week earlier.
Trump, posting on his Truth Social platform after the show ended, was unsparing.
“The Super Bowl Halftime Show is absolutely terrible, one of the worst, EVER!” he wrote. He added that the performance “makes no sense” and called it “an affront to the Greatness of America,” arguing it failed to meet the country’s standards of “Success, Creativity, or Excellence.”
The criticism was not new. Weeks before the Super Bowl, Trump had already dismissed the NFL’s decision to book Bad Bunny as “absolutely ridiculous,” a remark that underscored the political undertones surrounding the artist’s appearance.
Bad Bunny, 31, has long mixed music with activism. One of the most-streamed artists in the world, he has repeatedly criticized Trump’s immigration and deportation policies and publicly supported Kamala Harris during the 2024 presidential election.
During his Grammy acceptance speech days before the Super Bowl, he punctuated his message with a blunt phrase aimed at U.S. immigration authorities, further sharpening the political edge ahead of the game.
Despite Trump’s backlash, the halftime show drew widespread praise from fans and critics who hailed it as a landmark moment for Latino and Puerto Rican representation in mainstream American entertainment. The performance featured vibrant choreography, island-inspired visuals and surprise guest appearances from Lady Gaga and Ricky Martin, reinforcing the global reach Bad Bunny promised.
As an alternative, the conservative group Turning Point USA streamed its own “All-American Halftime Show,” featuring Kid Rock and country artists including Brantley Gilbert, Gabby Barrett and Lee Brice. The event was promoted by several Trump-aligned figures on social media, including Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, who reposted the broadcast with the caption, “The Hegseth family is watching.”
Turning Point USA was founded by Charlie Kirk, a prominent conservative activist and Trump ally.
On the field, the Super Bowl itself unfolded quietly compared to the noise off it. Seattle led New England 9-0 at halftime in a defensive struggle that struggled to match the spectacle and controversy surrounding the break in play.
Bad Bunny made Super Bowl history with a Spanish-language halftime show that thrilled fans and critics alike, while Donald Trump denounced it as “one of the worst ever,” turning football’s biggest night into another flashpoint in America’s culture wars.
