After seemingly everyone reacted to the news that global superstar Bad Bunny will headline the Super Bowl Halftime Show in 2026, President Donald Trump is now sharing his thoughts on the Latin icon taking to the stage.
In an on-air phone interview with NewsMax host Greg Kelly — who referred to the singer as “the Bad Bunny Rabbit of whatever his name is” — the twice-impeached president claimed that he didn’t know who the “DtMF” singer was. “I never heard of him. I don’t know who he is. I don’t know why they’re doing it. It’s, like, crazy,” Trump said, before shifting the conversation to Roc Nation and Jay-Z, who are responsible for helping choose the halftime show performer every year. “And then they blame it on some promoter that they hired to pick up entertainment. I think it’s absolutely ridiculous.”
Billboard has reached out to Bad Bunny’s rep for comment.
It’s worth noting that while the president may not know who Bad Bunny is, the world at large most certainly does. The Puerto Rican star has amassed nearly 80 million monthly Spotify listeners over the course of his career, making him currently the 12th most streamed artist on the platform. From 2020 to 2022, he was the ranked the most streamed artist on Spotify at the end of each year, dethroned only by Taylor Swift in 2023 and 2024.
Meanwhile, Bad Bunny’s historic, 31-date No Me Quiero Ir de Aquí residency at Puerto Rico’s Coliseo broke sales records for the venue; the livestream of his final show in the residency became the single most watched livestream in the history of Amazon Music.
Since he was announced as the performer for next year’s halftime show, Bad Bunny has been subject to criticism and attacks from right-wing commentators and members of Trump’s administration. The president’s former campaign manager Corey Lewandowski called the pick “shameful” and claimed that Benito “seems to hate America so much,” despite the fact that Puerto Rico — the singer’s homeland — is a U.S. territory.
Lewandowski also claimed that United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents would be present at the Super Bowl. Kristi Noem, the current secretary of homeland security, later confirmed that ICE agents would be “all over” the Super Bowl.
After a number of other right-wing commentators complained about Bad Bunny being openly critical of the president and the fact that he would be singing primarily in Spanish, the singer responded to the ongoing criticism during his monologue as host of the season 51 premiere of Saturday Night Live. “I’m doing the Super Bowl Halftime Show and I’m very happy. I think everyone is happy about it — even Fox News,” he joked in his monologue. He then proceeded to share a message in Spanish about the importance of representing his community at the Super Bowl — when he finished, he switched back to English and added, “If you didn’t understand know what I just said, you have four months to learn!”