(Editor’s note: Handshakes and Headshakes are my takes on local, state, and national events, groups, or newsmakers whose actions, decisions, or performance deserve to be celebrated or called out. Today: A Headshake for the fake outrage coming from President Donald Trump and MAGA over Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl halftime performance.)
Can President Donald Trump and MAGA Nation please quit with the fake outrage and moral grandstanding over Bad Bunny’s halftime performance at Super Bowl 60?
The president had the unmitigated gall to call Bad Bunny’s dancing “disgusting,” adding that it was especially offensive for “young children that are watching from throughout the U.S.A., and all over the world.” He went on to declare the show didn’t “represent our standards of Success, Creativity, or Excellence.”
That’s rich coming from the most vulgar president in modern history − a man who has made a career out of stomping on every traditional norm he now pretends to defend.
The same crowd that cheered vulgarity now plays hall monitor
Were Trump and MAGA worried about the kids when he referred to Haiti, El Salvador, and various African nations as “s—hole” countries? Did the pearl-clutchers cover their children’s ears when he dropped an f-bomb on camera while ranting about the Middle East?
How about when he mocked a disabled reporter, bragged about grabbing women by the genitals without permission, unleashed profane tirades against former Vice President Kamala Harris at campaign rallies, or set off an insurrection at the U.S. Capitol?
Apparently, those moments met MAGA’s “standards of excellence.”
Maybe the gold standard is paying hush money to a porn star, posting racist social media videos portraying the first Black president and first lady as apes, or collecting 34 felony convictions like participation trophies. If that’s the moral measuring stick, Bad Bunny should be teaching Sunday school.
Speaking of religion, this is the same man who, in 2015, said he had “not asked God for forgiveness” because he didn’t “do a lot of things that are bad.” Put that in your Christian Nationalist, Evangelical pipe and smoke it.
Spanish isn’t a middle finger − hypocrisy is
A reader recently wrote to me that Bad Bunny performing in Spanish was a “middle finger” to the rest of America. But when Trump literally flipped the bird to an auto worker at a Ford Plant in Michigan and mouthed the words “f— you,” that was what − patriotic sign language?
Keep it classy, MAGA.
Moral panic from a movement allergic to morals
The halftime show wasn’t a sermon. It was entertainment − colorful, bilingual, a reflection of the country we actually are rather than the fantasy MAGA sells on cable news.
What truly offends Trump and his followers isn’t choreography. It’s visibility. It’s the idea that American culture no longer revolves exclusively around them. A Latino artist commanding the biggest stage in sports reminds them that our nation is wider, browner, and more complicated than their bumper stickers.
So they reach for the oldest trick in the book: pretend to care about the children.
By the way, Turning Point USA’s headliner for its “All-American Halftime Show,” Kid Rock, once rapped these lyrics: “Young ladies, young ladies, I like ’em underage/ See, some say that’s statutory/ But I say it’s mandatory.” That sounds like something straight out of the Epstein files, not good, wholesome American entertainment for the kiddos.
Parental guidance is suggested.
When decency is convenient, not consistent
Trump and MAGA’s hypocrisy over Bad Bunny would be laughable if it weren’t so incredibly ridiculous. They’ve normalized cruelty, coarseness, and casual bigotry for nearly a decade, then suddenly discovered smelling salts because a pop star danced and sang in Spanish.
Instead of expecting Bad Bunny to unite the country during his Super Bowl halftime performance, how about we hold the guy 77 million Americans elected to do that job more accountable? Despite his campaign slogan, Trump hasn’t made America greater; he’s made it angrier, more divided and isolated.
The only people MAGA are fooling with this fake outrage are themselves.
Stop it. It’s embarrassing.
Just like this president.
Opinion and Engagement Editor Kevin S. Aldridge can be reached at kaldridge@enquirer.com. On X: @kevaldrid.
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: MAGA’s Bad Bunny outrage is a master class in hypocrisy | Opinion
Reporting by Kevin S. Aldridge, Cincinnati Enquirer / Cincinnati Enquirer
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
