The MAGA meltdown to Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl halftime show knows no end.
Apart from the football game itself, which offered little in the way of entertainment, Sunday’s Super Bowl enraged Fox News anchors. Conservative radio host Sid Rosenberg nearly turned red complaining about the Puerto Rican singer’s all-Spanish halftime concert.
“Truly it was a bad football game, and when you couple that with Bad Bunny, who may have been the worst halftime show—not one word of English, not one word of English, one word—you combine the halftime show and the football game... what a waste of three hours,” Rosenberg, 59, said on One Nation following the game.
Clay Travis, 46, agreed, saying he watched the game and show alongside his 81-year-old father, who said it was “the worst football game top to bottom ever.”
“Right, including the halftime,” the show’s host, Brian Kilmeade, 61, added.
Kilmeade said the entire halftime show was an affront to the country’s 250th anniversary.
“The NFL is the number one league in the world, and they do a lot right. I don’t understand why, in the year 250, they wouldn’t think red, white, and blue,” the Fox & Friends host said, inadvertently naming the Puerto Rican flag colors as well.
According to Kilmeade, the choice to spotlight Bad Bunny, whom the host said “repeatedly made anti-ICE remarks and openly criticized U.S. immigration enforcement,” and the band Green Day was downright “anti-American.”
“I looked at the pre-game show, they had Green Day, the most anti-American band you can imagine. Their hit album was called The American Idiot, and the lyrics reflect what he thinks of America and our policies, and then they have at halftime Bad Bunny," Kilmeade said disappointedly. Kilmeade noted that critics considered the performance “a political message on America’s biggest stage.”
Bad Bunny, 31, made headlines at last Sunday’s Grammy Awards for his pointed remarks about ICE, one week out from his Super Bowl performance.
“Before I say thanks to God, I’m going to say, ‘ICE OUT,’” the Puerto Rican singer said while accepting the award for Best Música Urbana album. “We’re not savage. We’re not animals. We’re not aliens. We are humans. And we are Americans.”
Bad Bunny’s performance also caught the ire of President Donald Trump, who called it “absolutely terrible”—despite the fact that MAGA was supposed to be boycotting the show.
“The Super Bowl Halftime Show is absolutely terrible, one of the worst, EVER! It makes no sense, is an affront to the Greatness of America, and doesn’t represent our standards of Success, Creativity, or Excellence,” Trump ranted on Truth Social. “This ‘Show’ is just a ‘slap in the face’ to our Country,” the president posted.
In contrast, conservative pundits praised Turning Point USA’s “All American Halftime Show,” headlined by MAGA-favorite Kid Rock.
“In response, Turning Point USA rolled out their star-studded, ‘All-American Halftime Show’ featuring patriotic themes, conservative voices,” Kilmeade lauded.
The show also featured Brantley Gilbert, Lee Brice, and Gabby Barrett, as well as a string interlude.
While the alternate halftime show was put on as a boycott of the main performance, Kid Rock, 55, did not take the stage until after Bad Bunny’s act ended. The MAGA-coded concert caught criticism for its headliner’s apparent lip-synching.
The show’s performance was stunted hours before it began when Turning Point announced it could not stream the event on X due to “licensing restrictions.”
The Kid Rock-led show was watched by up to six million people live on YouTube, but got trounced by the estimated 135 million who tuned in to Bad Bunny—a new record for the broadcast after last year’s show with Kendrick Lamar garnered 133.5 million viewers.
