President Donald Trump lashed out at Bad Bunny in a post on Truth Social on Sunday over the rapper's Super Bowl halftime performance, calling it a "slap in the face" to America.
Several months ago, conservatives melted down after rapper Bad Bunny, whose real name is Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio, was announced as the first Latin male artist to headline the Super Bowl halftime show.
At least one far-right figure said Bad Bunny "will just further divide the American people" and suggested that either the right-wing performers Kid Rock or Jason Aldean should headline the show instead.
As expected the rapper delivered a largely Spanish-language show that has been hailed as a "love letter to Puerto Rico" and that drew from his latest album, Debí Tirar Más Fotos, which won the Grammy for Album of the Year just a week ago—and Trump couldn't help but complain about the performance.
He wrote:
"The Super Bowl Halftime Show is absolutely terrible, one of the worst, EVER! It makes no sense, is an affront to the Greatness of America, and doesn’t represent our standards of Success, Creativity, or Excellence."
"Nobody understands a word this guy is saying, and the dancing is disgusting, especially for young children that are watching from throughout the U.S.A., and all over the World. This “Show” is just a “slap in the face” to our Country, which is setting new standards and records every single day — including the Best Stock Market and 401(k)s in History!"
"There is nothing inspirational about this mess of a Halftime Show and watch, it will get great reviews from the Fake News Media, because they haven’t got a clue of what is going on in the REAL WORLD — And, by the way, the NFL should immediately replace its ridiculous new Kickoff Rule. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!"
You can see his post below.
@realDonaldTrump/Truth Social
What makes Trump's outrage toward the Super Bowl even funnier is the fact that he could have just watched Turning Point USA's "All-American Halftime Show," which the right-wing organization spent months assembling and featured performers Kid Rock, Brantley Gilbert, Lee Brice, and American Idol alum Gabby Barrett.
That was a failure, by the way.
An estimated 135 million viewers made Bad Bunny’s halftime show the most-watched mid-game performance ever, while about 6 million tuned into the Turning Point USA counterpart on YouTube, according to preliminary counts.
Trump's reaction was predictable—and he was swiftly criticized for it.
Trump previously told the New York Post that he would skip this year’s Super Bowl because it was “too far” to travel. In the same interview, he took aim at Bad Bunny and Green Day, the latter of whom performed during the game’s opening ceremony.
Trump said he disliked the artists because of their outspoken criticism of his administration’s immigration policies, saying bluntly that he was “anti-them.”
Apparently not enough considering that he chose to watch them anyway.
