It was hardly a surprise that Donald Trump erupted after watching Bad Bunny’s halftime show at the Super Bowl.
The 2026 halftime performance will be remembered as the moment American polarization ran headfirst into the hit-making force of the biggest pop star on the planet. With a moving tribute to Puerto Rico, star reinforcements like Lady Gaga and Ricky Martin, and surprises including Cardi B and Pedro Pascal, Bad Bunny spiked the football into the turf and reminded viewers that America still has room for everyone.
Bad Bunny’s halftime show was a celebration of almost everything imaginable: songs, musical styles, dance, color, guest cultures and even a wedding. But in America of 2026, it felt above all like a foam party, the foam spilling from the mouths of the US president, his advisers and the propaganda machine as they watched Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio effortlessly take over the most American event there is, singing in Spanish before hundreds of millions of viewers in the US and around the world.
Those were the same voices that tried to frame the choice of Bad Bunny, an artist operating at a stadium scale for at least three years and a guest at Jennifer Lopez and Shakira’s 2020 halftime show, as a declaration of war. It ended in a historic defeat, even before accounting for the fiasco of the so-called protest festival organized against the halftime show.
Turning Point USA, founded by the late right-wing activist Charlie Kirk, staged a concert marathon led by Kid Rock, arguing that Bad Bunny and other brown artists had stolen the Super Bowl. The only real festival that emerged was the number of musicians who chose to bail out, deciding there was no reason to humiliate themselves or miss an exceptional halftime show.
One reason the performance worked so well was that an event built on pure spectacle met an artist whose essence is effortless cool. Even with every eye on him, literally, Bad Bunny let the stage do the work rather than the other way around. While other performers feel compelled to act like Tom Cruise filming “Mission: Impossible,” as Usher and the skaters did two years ago, Bad Bunny moved elegantly from one focal point to another, concentrating on channeling his boundless charisma.
He behaved as if he were the event’s CEO, and any good CEO knows there is no reason to focus only on himself. The show was packed with outstanding dancers, striking sets rich with references to Puerto Rico, famous cameos from Cardi B, Jessica Alba and Pedro Pascal, guest singers like Lady Gaga with a Latin version of “Die With A Smile” and Ricky Martin in a touching passing-of-the-crown moment, and fireworks.
Bad Bunny simply had to deliver his joyful, irresistible hits, from “Tití Me Preguntó,” also known as the selfie anthem, to “NUEVAYoL,” which celebrated New York in California. He moved a little, smiled, winked and even shed a tear. As former soccer star Alon Mizrahi once put it, he has nothing to prove, and he proved it on the field.
After fully delivering on his promise of a massive party, Bad Bunny still had to navigate the NFL’s strict rules on non-musical content while addressing the reality that led him to skip US tour dates entirely on his blockbuster tour and to denounce Immigration and Customs Enforcement at the Grammy Awards a week earlier. Artists who faced similar tests, including Lady Gaga during Trump’s first term in 2017, barely escaped unscathed.
A full decade has passed since Beyoncé’s raised black fist during “Formation,” a moment of protest tucked into Coldplay’s otherwise gentle halftime show. Even Kendrick Lamar was too busy with his pointless feud with Drake for many viewers to notice the sharper messages embedded in his performance.
Bad Bunny chose to approach this minefield through the two things he understands best: love and style. Behind him, an electronic sign read, “The only thing stronger than hate is love.” When he said, “God bless America,” he listed every country on the continent. He then took a football emblazoned with the words, “Together, we are all America,” and slammed it onto the turf like a player scoring a touchdown.
It was precise, restrained and deeply human. No wonder Trump lost it, branding the show “the worst ever, a slap in the face of the nation, nobody understands a word this guy is saying, he does not represent us.” It did not matter to Bad Bunny. By that point, he was already the night’s clear winner.