Charlie Kirk’s Turning Point USA’s halftime special was meant to rival Bad Bunny’s historic Super Bowl performance by celebrating “faith, freedom, and love of country.”
Instead, it wasn’t even a halftime show.
Turning Point USA’s All-American Halftime Show was pre-taped in Atlanta, Georgia, Variety reported. Even so, the 30-minute performance still hit a series of snags, including blatantly obvious, off-tempo lip-synching by Kid Rock that drew ridicule from across the internet—including from some within MAGA’s own base.
“The worst part about Kid Rock lip-syncing the TPUSA Super Bowl halftime show… they opened his performance on a solid black screen… they ended on a solid black screen, as if we wouldn’t notice it was prerecorded,” Trump-friendly outlet Next News Network criticized on X.
“But the real crime? It wasn’t even live. It was pre-recorded on a small sound stage with about 200 people as backdrops—and they STILL let that bad lip sync air.”
That sentiment appeared to resonate well beyond the right.
“Good f---ing morning to everybody except Kid Rock, who had to pre-tape a lip-synced performance for TPUSA’s ridiculous halftime show,” Democratic strategist Mike Nellis wrote on X.
“That guy couldn’t be more irrelevant or talentless if he tried. No wonder he went full MAGA grifter.”
Others criticized Turning Point USA for marketing the event as a live alternative to the NFL’s halftime show.
“They promoted Turning Point USA’s “All-American” halftime show with Kid Rock as something to watch live during the Super Bowl,” X user Jason Egenberg wrote. “Turns out it was pre-recorded in Atlanta and aired later to look real-time. So it wasn’t a live alternative. It was a taped segment marketed as an event. That’s not branding. That’s pretending.”
The performance opened with Rock, 55, jumping onstage in a fur vest and his signature black hat for a high-energy rendition of his 1999 hit “Bawitdaba.”
After a brief intermission, Rock traded his usual flashy outfit for a more subdued blue ensemble and a Detroit baseball cap, appearing with a guitar. He was introduced by his real name, Robert James Ritchie, before delivering a rendition of Cody Johnson’s “’Til You Can’t.”
Turning Point USA, the conservative youth organization founded by Kirk, first announced plans for a MAGA-friendly alternative halftime show in October, after right-wing backlash erupted over a Spanish-speaking artist headlining the NFL’s broadcast.
Notably, the performance ultimately aired on YouTube only after Bad Bunny’s show at Levi’s Stadium in California had concluded.
Bad Bunny’s performance, however, drew praise for doing precisely what Turning Point USA claimed to be attempting: invoking themes of faith, freedom, and love.
Bad Bunny—real name Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio—used the Super Bowl LX halftime show to celebrate his “motherland” Puerto Rico and the Americas more broadly. During the performance, he spiked a football emblazoned with the message “Together, We Are America,” and closed the show singing in front of a billboard that read: “The only thing more powerful than hate is love.”
“God bless America,” the singer said in English before listing countries across North, Central, and South America and leading a parade of dancers carrying their flags.
“I’m sorry but I just genuinely question your taste level if you didn’t enjoy the Bad Bunny halftime show,” Meghan McCain wrote on X. “And everything in life doesn’t have to be ruined with politics.”
The Daily Beast has reached out to Turning Point USA for comment.
