Trump added that the performance “doesn’t represent our standards of Success, Creativity, or Excellence.”

Donald Trump blasts Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl 2026 halftime show: ‘An affront to the Greatness of America’

Trump added that the performance "doesn't represent our standards of Success, Creativity, or Excellence."

By Wesley Stenzel

Wesley Stenzel is a news writer at **. He began writing for EW in 2022.

EW's editorial guidelines

February 8, 2026 9:29 p.m. ET

Donald Trump in Palm Beach, Fla., on Jan. 3. Credit:

Nicole Combeau/Bloomberg via Getty

Donald Trump has weighed in on Bad Bunny's Super Bowl 2026 halftime show performance.

The president shared his outrage at the Puerto Rican superstar's set at Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif., in a Truth Social post on Sunday night.

"The Super Bowl Halftime Show is absolutely terrible, one of the worst, EVER!" the president opined. "It makes no sense, is an affront to the Greatness of America, and doesn't represent our standards of Success, Creativity, or Excellence." (Bad Bunny and every other Puerto Rican is an American citizen, as the island is a U.S. territory.)

Trump continued, "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."

The Grammy winner, who performed a series of his hit songs in Spanish, was also joined by Lady Gaga and Ricky Martin during the halftime show.

Bad Bunny at the Super Bowl 2026 halftime show performance in Santa Clara, Calif., on Feb. 8, 2026.

Patrick T. Fallon / AFP via Getty

The president also took the opportunity to change the subject to the economy. "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!" he wrote.

Trump added, "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."

The former *Apprentice* host concluded his remarks with a complaint about a new football rule, "And, by the way, the NFL should immediately replace its ridiculous new Kickoff Rule," he said, echoing his rant from last year.**

Bad Bunny at the Super Bowl 2026 halftime show performance in Santa Clara, Calif., on Feb. 8, 2026.

Neilson Barnard/Getty

Trump previously criticized the decision to hire Bad Bunny as the Super Bowl halftime show performer during an appearance on NewsMax’s *Greg Kelly Reports *in October.

"I've never heard of him," Trump said of the Puerto Rican musician at the time. "I don't know who he is."

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Trump added, "I don't know why they're doing it. It's crazy. And then they blame it on some promoter they hired to pick up entertainment — I think it's absolutely ridiculous."

That last jab may have been in reference to the fact that the NFL's partner, Jay-Z's Roc Nation, selected Bad Bunny as the performer rather than the league itself.**

Trump became the first sitting president to attend a Super Bowl in 2025, but said that he was skipping this year's game in January.

"It's just too far away," he told the *New York Post*. "I would. I've [gotten] great hands [at] the Super Bowl. They like me."

Donald Trump in Washington, D.C., on Dec. 7, 2025; Bad Bunny in Los Angeles on Feb. 1, 2026.

Taylor Hill/FilmMagic; Phil McCarten/CBS via Getty

Trump also took the opportunity to slam Bad Bunny again, and also criticized Green Day, who played at the game's opening ceremony.

"I'm anti-them," Trump said of the musicians. "I think it's a terrible choice. All it does is sow hatred. Terrible."

The Super Bowl isn't the only pop cultural spectacle that Trump has addressed this month. The president previously slammed the Grammy Awards on Feb. 1, calling the show “virtually unwatchable” and opining that host Trevor Noah was “almost as bad as Jimmy Kimmel at the Low Ratings Academy Awards.”

Trump was particularly upset by the host's joke about the president's connection to sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein, which came after Billie Eilish won the Song of the Year award.

"That is a Grammy that every artist wants almost as much as Trump wants Greenland," Noah said. "Which makes sense, I mean, because Epstein’s island is gone, he needs a new one to hang out on with Bill Clinton."

Donald Trump and Melania Trump in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 29.

Taylor Hill/WireImage

"Noah said, INCORRECTLY about me, that Donald Trump and Bill Clinton spent time on Epstein Island. WRONG!!!” Trump responded. "I can't speak for Bill, but I have never been to Epstein Island, nor anywhere close, and until tonight's false and defamatory statement, have never been accused of being there, not even by the Fake News Media."

Trump later threatened Noah with legal action. "It looks like I’ll be sending my lawyers to sue this poor, pathetic, talentless, dope of an M.C., and suing him for plenty$," he wrote.

Bad Bunny's selection as the halftime show performer led to so much conservative backlash that the right-wing organization Turning Point USA, which was founded by the late Charlie Kirk, organized its own counterprogramming music extravaganza. The show featured Trump supporter Kid Rock flanked by country artists Brantley Gilbert, Lee Brice, and Gabby Barrett.

Turning Point's "All-American Halftime Show" was promoted as a celebration promoting "faith, family and freedom." The initial announcement of the event linked to a survey asking viewers which genres the hoped to hear represented, with options including "Pop," "Worship,""Americana," and "Anything in English." That last option echoes conservatives' repeated insistence that Bad Bunny is unfit to perform at the Super Bowl because his music is predominantly in Spanish.

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