It’s Super Bowl Sunday, but President Donald Trump won’t be making an appearance.
In 2025, he became the first sitting U.S. President to attend the biggest game in football. He told the New York Post last month he wouldn’t be attending due to the long flight to the San Francisco area, but also he isn’t in favor of the performers.
“I’m anti-them. I think it’s a terrible choice. All it does is sow hatred. Terrible,” Trump said.
Many are waiting to see what the Puerto Rican superstar Bad Bunny does at the Apple Music Super Bowl LX Halftime Show. He has been outspoken against Trump in the past, and after winning album of the year at the Grammys this year, he spoke in defense of the Latino community, saying “ICE out.”
Here is what to know about Bad Bunny’s stance on Trump in the past:
Is Bad Bunny a Trump supporter? His political views
Bad Bunny backed former Vice President Kamala Harris in the 2024 presidential election.
Bad Bunny’s Puerto Rican pride is a big part of his work. In Trump’s first presidency, Hurricane Maria ravaged the U.S. territory, and the president went viral for tossing paper towel rolls into crowds when he visited following the devastation.
Appearing on “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon” in 2018, Bad Bunny dedicated his performance to the victims of the hurricane.
“After one year of the hurricane, there are still people without electricity in their homes,” he said. “More than 3,000 people died and Trump’s still in denial.”
Bad Bunny’s 2024 endorsement for Trump’s Democratic opponent came shortly after a comedian at Trump’s Madison Square Garden rally made disparaging comments about the island.
“There’s a lot going on. I don’t know if you know this, but there’s literally a floating island of garbage in the middle of the ocean right now,” Tony Hinchcliffe, whose stage name is Kill Tony, said. “I think it’s called Puerto Rico.”
In endorsing Harris, Bad Bunny shared a video of her pledging to boost Puerto Rico’s economy to his 45 million Instagram followers.
“I will never forget what Donald Trump did and what he did not do when Puerto Rico needed a caring and a competent leader,” Harris said in the video shared. “He abandoned the island, tried to block aid after back-to-back devastating hurricanes and offered nothing more than paper towel and insults.”
He talked about the incident in a Popcast interview with the New York Times in January, explaining that due to the context of the political rally, some people may not have understood Hinchcliffe was making a joke.
In 2020, Bad Bunny allowed Biden to use his song in TV ads, CNN reported. In 2023, he received GLAAD’s Vanguard Award for his outspoken allyship of the LGBTQ community and for using his popularity to support transgender rights.
Bad Bunny skipped US on world tour due to immigration policies
Bad Bunny released his Grammy-winning sixth studio album, “Debí Tirar Más Fotos” last year.
In the music video for one song on the album, “NUEVAYoL,” he seemed to address Trump’s anti-immigration policies directly. After showing a Puerto Rican flag hanging over the forehead of the Statue of Liberty, a voice that sounds like Trump’s plays from a radio and says:
“I made a mistake. I want to apologize to the immigrants in America,” the voice says. “I want to say that this country is nothing without the immigrants. This country is nothing without Mexicans, Dominicans, Puerto Ricans, Colombians, Venezuelans, Cubans …”
One of the people by the radio cuts it off as they all walk away.
Bad Bunny held a residency in Puerto Rico from July 11 to Sept. 14, but surprised fans when his following world tour schedule did not include any U.S. appearances. In an interview published Sept. 10, he said Immigration and Customs Enforcement crackdowns were part of the reason he opted not to bring his tour here.
“There were many reasons why I didn’t show up in the U.S., and none of them were out of hate,” he told I-D magazine. “Specifically, for a residency here in Puerto Rico, when we are an unincorporated territory of the U.S. … people from the U.S. could come here to see the show. Latinos and Puerto Ricans of the United States could also travel here, or to any part of the world.”
“But there was the issue of—like, (expletive) ICE could be outside (my concert). And it’s something that we were talking about and very concerned about.”
What has Trump said on Bad Bunny performing at Super Bowl LX?
In February 2025, Trump became the first sitting president to attend the Super Bowl in New Orleans. He has made appearances at high-profile sporting events a regular occurrence in this presidency.
The Trump administration has deployed a range of anti-immigration tactics, including attempting to limit birthright citizenship, ramping up ICE arrests and trying to expedite removals. Several of his measures have faced legal challenges and widespread backlash.
In October, Trump told Newsmax’s Greg Kelly that he had “never heard” of Bad Bunny.
At a press briefing on Feb. 5, Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt was asked if his screens would show the Bad Bunny show or the alternate Turning Point USA’s “All-American Halftime Show” featuring Kid Rock.
“I think the president would much prefer a Kid Rock performance over Bad Bunny,” she said.
Contributing: Rebecca Morin, Pamela Avila, Taijuan Moorman, Lauren Villagran, USA TODAY
Kinsey Crowley is the Trump Connect reporter for the USA TODAY Network. Reach her at kcrowley@gannett.com. Follow her on X and TikTok @kinseycrowley or Bluesky at @kinseycrowley.bsky.social.
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Bad Bunny has criticized Donald Trump before. What has Trump said?
Reporting by Kinsey Crowley, USA TODAY NETWORK / Palm Beach Post
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
