“It’s true, Turning Point USA is thrilled to announce The All American Halftime Show,” said a Thursday X post from the organization founded by the late conservative activist Charlie Kirk. It added that details about performers would be coming soon.
This “halftime” show is scheduled for Feb. 8 of next year, the date of the next Super Bowl. In late September, the National Football League announced its own halftime performer for the upcoming game, Latin rap icon Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio, who goes by the stage name Bad Bunny. He is from Puerto Rico – a U.S. territory in the Caribbean that has English and Spanish as its official languages – and most of the three-time Grammy-winner’s work is performed in Spanish.
“What Benito has done and continues to do for Puerto Rico is truly inspiring. We are honored to have him on the world’s biggest stage,” said Shawn “Jay Z” Carter of the decision to have Bad Bunny headline the halftime show. Carter is the owner of Roc Nation, the company that has produced the Super Bowl Halftime performances since 2019.
These performances can draw in massive audiences. To date, the largest was this year’s performance by rapper Kendrick Lamar at 133.5 million, according to Billboard.
During that performance, Lamar “appeared to take a patriotic swipe,” at President Donald Trump, who had just taken office, the Huffington Post reported. It also said Trump left his box at the Caesars Superdome shortly before Lamar’s show ended.
Bad Bunny is expected to take the stage at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif., for the upcoming show. Trump and other conservatives have criticized the choice of Bad Bunny to be the halftime show performer.
“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 in an interview with Newsmax this week. The president added that he thinks it’s “absolutely ridiculous.”
USA Today noted that Bad Bunny, who as a Puerto Rican is a U.S. citizen, has been critical of the Trump administration’s immigration policies, particularly raids conducted by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). He told i-D magazine that deportations of Latinos were one of the reasons he has recently avoided touring in the mainland U.S.
In an interview with Benny Johnson, U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said ICE will be present at Bad Bunny’s Halftime Show.
“We’ll be all over that place,” she said. “We are going to enforce the law. You shouldn’t be coming to the Super Bowl unless you are a law-abiding American citizen,” Noem added that she thinks “the NFL sucks and we’ll win.”
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton also complained about the decision to have Bad Bunny play the halftime show. Audacy station KRLD reported that “he would prefer country artists such as Jason Aldean and called for more patriotism in the event’s programming.”
Kirk, the founder of Turning Point, was close to Trump and other prominent conservatives, including Vice President JD Vance. He was fatally shot in front of crowd of people at a Utah college during Turning Point’s “American Comeback” tour last month.
According to the Turning Point USA “All American Halftime Show” website, the theme of the event will be “celebrating faith, family and freedom.” In a form on the site, visitors are asked to provide their contact information and what musical genre they would like to see featured. The options included: Americana, Classic Rock, Country, Hip Hop, Pop, Worship and “Anything in English.”