Bad Bunny x Trump: How the Super Bowl Halftime Show Turned into Political Tension

Trump calls Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl show “terrible” Bad Bunny, the Latin star and the most listened to artist in the world today, was the attraction of the Super Bowl halftime show, one of the biggest entertainment stages in the world. But the show has also become a political issue in the United States — and criticism from US President Donald Trump. The clash goes beyond music and exposes themes such as Donald Trump’s anti-immigration policy and pride in Latin American identity, which is one of the main themes of the album ‘Debí Tirar Más Fotos’, the most recent and award-winning released by the Puerto Rican singer. The announcement of Bad Bunny as the main attraction was made on September 28, 2025 and provoked an immediate reaction from Trump. In interviews and public statements, the American president stated that the choice was “absolutely ridiculous”, he also said that he had never heard of the singer and accused the artist of “spreading hate” in the messages he sends. The speeches had a wide impact on social media and in the press. The issue gained prominence because Bad Bunny is, in fact, a music star and is well known for his political stance of valuing Latin America and for speaking out against the Trump government’s anti-immigration policy. In fact, the singer has already publicly spoken out against ICE, the federal agents of the Immigration and Inspection Service. In one of his speeches at the Grammys, where he won 3 awards, he even said on stage: ‘Out, Ice’. Still following the Super Bowl announcement, a White House advisor even threatened to send federal immigration agents to the stadium in California where the match will take place. This has never happened in US history. The statement was interpreted as an attempt to intimidate Bad Bunny’s huge Latin audience and their possible presence at the event. At the same time, Trump’s allies also began to attack the fact that the show was mostly in Spanish, raising questions about national identity and a true “American culture”. It’s worth remembering that Bad Bunny is an artist who makes a point of singing and even giving interviews in Spanish. It is also a political positioning of the artist as he removes the English language from the centrality and places Spanish, a language spoken in most of Latin America. ‘Gracias, mami, por parirme aquí’ Benito Antonio Ocásio Martínez is the real name of the figure behind Bad Bunny. He is from Puerto Rico, a small island in the Caribbean that, since the 19th century, has belonged to the United States. This means that people born in the territory have American citizenship, but not political status. In other words, Puerto Ricans do not have the right to vote in American elections, including for president or representatives. However, it is the American Congress that rules the island: it controls the armed forces and even the trade relations that Puerto Rico has with the entire world. On the most recent album, Bad Bunny features songs that criticize the island’s status and talks about protests and the fight for autonomy, as in the song ‘Lo que le pasó a Hawaii’. For experts, the clash between Trump and Benito symbolizes a clash of the future: on one side, a nationalist president who defends a homogeneous American identity and, on the other, an artist who talks about the appreciation of Latin culture and their own roots – including people who need to leave their homeland to seek better opportunities and who, therefore, deserve respect and dignity. The Super Bowl is approaching and the expectation is that it will have one of the biggest audiences for the American football final, precisely because of the Bad Bunny show and the clash with President Donald Trump. After all, the show will be much more than just songs and promises a strong political charge amid rising tensions in the United States over the issue of immigration.

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