As Bad Bunny prepares to take the stage for the Super Bowl 60 halftime show, President Trump has made it clear he will not be watching. Instead, he plans to change the channel.
“I think the President would much prefer a Kid Rock performance over Bad Bunny, I must say that,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt stated on February 5.
At 79, Trump will be at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida, on Sunday, February 8, as the New England Patriots face off against the Seattle Seahawks at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, California.
Kid Rock is set to headline The All-American Halftime Show, an event organized by Turning Point USA, a political group founded by the late conservative activist Charlie Kirk.
This alternative halftime show will also feature performances from country artists Lee Brice, Brantley Gilbert, and Gabby Barrett.
Turning Point’s event is positioned as a counter to the main halftime show featuring Puerto Rican superstar Bad Bunny, who primarily performs in Spanish.
Trump has voiced his disapproval of the NFL's choice of Bad Bunny multiple times. “I’ve never heard of him,” he remarked in an October 2025 interview with Newsmax. “I don’t know who he is. I don’t know why they’re doing it. It’s, like, crazy.”
He further criticized the decision, calling it “absolutely ridiculous.” Last month, Trump indicated that Bad Bunny's performance, along with Green Day's involvement in the Super Bowl 60 opening ceremony, was enough to deter him from attending the game in person.
“I’m anti-them,” Trump told The New York Post in a January 23 interview. “I think it’s a terrible choice. All it does is sow hatred. Terrible.”
Green Day's frontman Billie Joe Armstrong has been openly critical of Trump for years.
In response to his critics, Bad Bunny addressed concerns about his halftime performance during a press conference on February 5. He suggested that English speakers had “four months” to learn Spanish before the show.
His focus remains on enjoyment: “I just want people to have fun.”
During the press conference, Bad Bunny became emotional while discussing his mother, Lysaurie Ocasio. “She believed in me, and I’m not talking about my music career,” he shared. “I’m just talking about everything. She believed in me as a person, as a human. She believed in my decisions, in my opinions, in my taste, in my choices.”
With tears in his eyes, he added, “She believed I could be a good person. I think that it was what got me here, you know?”
The highly anticipated Super Bowl 60 between the Patriots and Seahawks kicks off Sunday at 6:30 ET on NBC and Peacock.
