Super Bowl Halftime: Singer’s Trump Criticism & Conservative Response

[헤럴드경제=도현정 기자]American conservatives are protesting against Latin pop star Bad BUNNY’s Super Bowl halftime show. They say it is unacceptable for a singer who was critical of Trump to perform at the largest event in the United States. In the end, they even planned a ‘counter-performance’ to compete with the Super Bowl halftime show.

The American National Football League (NFL) selected Bad Bunny as the headliner (representative performer) for the Super Bowl halftime show to be held in February 2026. Bad Bunny is a superstar who has won three Grammy Awards and twelve Latin Grammy Awards. Currently, he is said to have the largest fan base among Latin pop singers. If you look at the performance of music streaming such as Spotify, it ranks high in English-speaking countries along with Drake and Taylor Swift, and if you include non-English-speaking countries, it is overwhelmingly first.

He is also a person who is the opposite of U.S. President Trump in all aspects, including his origins, inclinations, and political orientation. He has repeatedly voiced criticism of President Trump and his hard-line immigration policies, to the point where he said he would not perform in the United States this year due to the possibility that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) would use his concert hall as a venue for crackdowns. In last year’s presidential election, he also publicly supported Democratic candidate Kamala Harris.

When Bad Bunny took over the halftime show, far-right groups in the United States, including MAGA, protested. Bad Bunny is called a “huge Trump hater.”He took issue with his history of criticism. Some questioned his legal status and claimed he was not an American. Bad Bunny is from Puerto Rico, a U.S. territory, and is recognized as a U.S. citizen.

The backlash from the conservative camp spread into a ‘counter-performance’. Turning Point USA, a conservative organization founded by Charlie Kirk, announced on X (formerly Twitter) on the 9th (local time) that it would host ‘The All American Halftime Show’ as an alternative performance to the Super Bowl Halftime Show.

Turning Point USA said the show “will celebrate faith, family and freedom.” Through the website, people are asking what genre of music would be good for a performance. The option given was “Everything in English,” as if targeting Bad Bunny, whose lyrics are mainly in Spanish.

In response to this plan, the conservative camp recommended singers that would suit their tastes. Right-wing commentator Jack Posovic first proposed hosting a ‘counter-performance’ with rock band Creed at Turning Point USA. Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson argued that artists like Lee Greenwood should be featured performers at large-scale events such as the Super Bowl halftime show. Lee Greenwood is a country singer famous for the song ‘God Bless the USA’, which is often used as exit music at Trump appearances. It can be said that he is a singer loved by the Republican Party.

The NFL appears to be paying no heed to the backlash from conservatives. Foreign media outlets assessed that the NFL is accustomed to criticism from conservatives. This is because he had a conflict with the political world over an incident in which he kneeled during the national anthem in 2016, during Trump’s first term in office. At the time, NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick knelt during the national anthem before the game to protest racial discrimination, and many players followed suit. In response, the political world called on NFL team owners to fire the players in question, and urged fans to boycott the league (refusal to attend). The NFL eventually forced players who kneeled during the national anthem to remain in the locker room. However, there was no league-wide boycott, and it still remains America’s favorite sport. This year’s Super Bowl game reached 127.7 million viewers in the United States.

Despite strong opposition from those around him, Trump remains cautious. In an interview with Newsmax’s Greg Kelly on the 6th (local time), President Trump cleverly avoided the question of whether the league should be boycotted because of Bad Bunny. “I don’t know who he (Bad Bunny) is, and I don’t know why they do that (boycott),” Trump said.

Some analysts say that Trump’s status as the most popular sport in the United States causes him to take a cautious approach to the NFL. President Trump became the first incumbent president to attend and watch the 59th Super Bowl game in February, which determines the NFL season champion. At the time, he also mentioned before the halftime show, “Sports are an important element that unites America.”

kate01@heraldcorp.com