Former President Donald Trump sharply criticized Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl halftime performance on Sunday, expressing frustration that “nobody understands a word this guy is saying” during the show, which featured predominantly Spanish lyrics.
Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio, widely known as Bad Bunny, is a Puerto Rican musician and a prominent critic of the Trump administration. Recently, at the Grammy Awards, he notably called for “ICE out” in reference to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, an agency central to Mr. Trump’s stringent immigration policies.
Bad Bunny’s electrifying Super Bowl show at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, California, was a spectacle that included a live wedding and guest appearances by pop icons Lady Gaga and Ricky Martin.
Towards the end of his dynamic 13-minute performance, Bad Bunny conveyed a powerful message in English: “God bless America,” followed by a list of nations across North and South America. He then displayed a football emblazoned with the words “Together, We Are America” and affirmed in Spanish, “We’re still here.”
The New York Times lauded the performance as “a kaleidoscopic blast of merriment — a showcase of some of the most ecstatic and celebratory aspects of Latin culture.” However, this vibrant display, occurring at a politically charged time in the U.S., provoked Mr. Trump’s indignation.
In an extensive post on Truth Social, Mr. Trump lambasted the show as “absolutely terrible,” asserting that it “doesn’t represent our standards.” He further characterized the performance as “an affront to the Greatness of America” and a direct “slap in the face” to the nation.
Despite the former president’s suggestion that Bad Bunny’s lyrics were incomprehensible to most, Spanish stands as the most commonly spoken language in U.S. homes after English, with over 40 million speakers nationwide.
Mr. Trump has a history of employing divisive rhetoric and making inaccurate generalizations about immigrants, particularly those from Spanish-speaking countries like Mexico. It’s worth noting that Bad Bunny, an American citizen, was born in Puerto Rico, a U.S. territory. Weeks prior to the Super Bowl, Mr. Trump had already deemed Bad Bunny a “terrible choice” for the halftime show, claiming, “All it does is sow hatred.”
During his 2023 campaign, Mr. Trump infamously stated that undocumented migrants were “poisoning the blood of our country.” Following his return to office last year, his administration initiated a widespread immigration crackdown, which has ignited public outcry due to its tactics and led to hundreds of thousands of deportations.
Both the former president and his allies have consistently used language as a battleground in the ongoing cultural discourse. In 2024, Mr. Trump criticized newly arrived migrants for speaking languages “nobody has ever heard of,” labeling it “a very horrible thing.”
In March, he signed a largely symbolic executive order officially designating English as the national language. While supporters hailed it as a statement of common sense, critics argued it primarily served to diminish individuals who grew up speaking other languages.
On Sunday night, Turning Point USA, a conservative activist organization, presented an alternative halftime show designed for a right-wing audience. Kid Rock headlined the event, performing two songs before the segment concluded with a video tribute to Charlie Kirk, the founder of Turning Point USA, who passed away last year. Aaron Boxerman contributed to this report.