Puerto Rican Singer Too Difficult a Concept for MAGA World

It took about two seconds after Bad Bunny was announced as the Super Bowl halftime performer for the right to melt down over a Spanish-speaking, ICE-criticizing artist getting to perform on football’s biggest stage.

By Claire Guinan  |  October 2, 2025 | 6:11pm
Photo: Getty Images CelebritiesEntertainment
Puerto Rican Singer Too Difficult a Concept for MAGA World

When the NFL and the other powers that be announced that the Puerto Rican reggaeton star Bad Bunny would headline the 2026 Super Bowl halftime show, it felt like a natural choice. His meteoric rise over the past year, coupled with being Spotify’s most-streamed artist worldwide for three consecutive years (2020–2022), makes him an obvious pick. But to the mouth-breathing MAGA outrage machine, there’s just one problem: he sings in… Spanish? Gasp.

He also recently made headlines after speaking transparently about his decision not to tour in the U.S. right now, asserting that the looming threat of ICE raids, arrests, and deportations made it an easy decision. “But there was the issue of—like, fucking ICE could be outside [my concert],” he told i-D in September. “And it’s something that we were talking about and very concerned about.”

So, naturally, it took all of two seconds for the MAGA world to be up in arms over the idea of a Spanish-speaking, ICE-criticizing artist getting to perform on football’s biggest stage. Fox News anchors and Trump cronies immediately started spewing claims that Bad Bunny “hates America” and “hates Trump,” therefore, he shouldn’t do the show.

In an interview with Benny Johnson on Wednesday, Corey Lewandowski (the former Trump lackey turned Kristi Noem sidepiece) said, “It’s so shameful they’ve decided to pick somebody who seems to hate America so much to represent them at the Halftime Show.”

No, it’s truly shameful that someone like Corey thinks he has the right to lecture us about representing America—when he looks and sounds like he was pulled straight out of a Nazi film, or “modern-day Gestapo,” as Minnesota Governor Tim Walz (D) recently put it.

And if his allegiance to ICE and Trump wasn’t clear, Lewandowski went ahead and threatened prospective Super Bowl attendees. “There is nowhere you can provide safe haven to people who are in this country illegally,” he said. “Not the Super Bowl and nowhere else. We will find you and apprehend you and put you in a detention facility and deport you.” Spoken like a true supervillain (or at least, a supervillain who was handed a glorified temp job from his girlfriend).

Personally, given the threats that Latinos are facing under the Trump administration, and the fact that we certainly don’t have enough of our English-speaking musicians calling out ICE, I think Bad Bunny is the perfect choice—though we’ll see if he actually makes it into the coveted Super Half-Time Show Gay Pre-Game Watch Party Queue.

And Corey, since things already seem messy enough in your household with your…como se dice…novia, I suggest you just…cállate la boca. 

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