President Donald Trump is fuming over the selection of Spanish-speaking artist Benito Martínez, better known as Bad Bunny, to be the headline of Super Bowl LX’s Apple Music Halftime Show. Judging from what people from the base of the Republican Party have said, the choice doesn’t seem to portray the American image the administration would like.
The reasoning is a little confusing, as Bad Bunny, a native of Puerto Rico, is an American citizen by birth. Puerto Rico has been a US territory since 1898, when the island was taken from Spain during the Spanish-American War.
Stephen A. Smith warns that President Trump could be coming for the WNBA next, after targeting the NFL over Bad Bunny and the NBA over gambling.
“Trump is coming. He’s coming.”
(🎥 @FirstTake / h/t @awfulannouncing )
— NBACentral (@TheDunkCentral) October 23, 2025
According to ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith, this could be the first step of President Trump politicizing sports. It’s been reported that the Department of Homeland Security is planning to conduct immigration raids around Levi’s Stadium during Super Bowl LX in February 2026. The game is being played in San Francisco, California, in a state with a high Hispanic population, and the presence of Bad Bunny, possibly the most famous Hispanic artist in the world, is expected to attract a high number of Hispanics.
But for Smith, Trump isn’t just targeting Hispanics and the NFL. This is about so much more:
“Trump is coming. He’s coming,” said Smith on First Take this Thursday
Smith went on to say that this could be the prelude to Trump targeting the WNBA and the NBA. It’s no secret that President Trump has meddled more than once in the state of the NCAA, having opinions about the NIL market and player compensation.
On the other hand, Bad Bunny has already entered the English-speaking sphere of the United States, taking a shot at being a comedian. He has appeared in several episodes of Saturday Night Live, alongside comedian Marcello Hernández and the Mandalorian’s Pedro Pascal, bringing the Hispanic experience of living in the US to the show.
What Did President Trump Say About Bad Bunny Headlining The Halftime Show?
Speaking this week on an interview on Newsmax, President Trump was asked what he thought of Bad Bunny performing at the Halftime Show for Super Bowl LX. He didn’t seem very pleased:
“I don’t know who he is,” Trump said. “I don’t know why they’re doing it. It’s, like, crazy. And then they blame it on some promoter they hired to pick up entertainment. I think it’s absolutely ridiculous.”
The NFL seems to have dug in its heels, with commissioner Roger Goodell dismissing the idea of Bad Bunny being replaced:
“It’s carefully thought through,” Goodell said. “I’m not sure we’ve ever selected an artist where we didn’t have some blowback or criticism. It’s pretty hard to do when you have literally hundreds of millions of people that are watching.”
This won’t be Bad Bunny’s first Super Bowl, with him appearing alongside Colombian singer Shakira, and Puerto Rican American singer and actress Jennifer López in Super LIV in Miami in 2020. Colombian artist J Balvin, like Bad Bunny, made a cameo appearance in that edition. The show was highly rated, and it attracted a significant Hispanic audience not only in the US but also overseas. It’s a business strategy that the NFL is likely looking to replicate.
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