Trump, 79, Says He's 'Never Heard Of' Bad Bunny In Super Bowl Rant (Did He Want Kid Rock?)

Donald Trump has an up and down relationship with the National Football League (NFL). Before Trump's transformation into a politician, he owned a team that played in the short lived United States Football League (USFL) in the 1980s, and more than once, he's talked about wanting to own an NFL team. In 2025, Trump attended the Super Bowl, in a controversial move that cost millions, and Trump threw Super Bowl parties at Mar-a-Lago. And now, he's weighing in on the 2026 Super Bowl half time performer Bad Bunny, and it doesn't seem like he's a fan or even aware of who Bad Bunny is. Though given his age and demographic, some on social media don't think that's a huge surprise.

In the October 6 episode of "Greg Kelly Reports" for Newsmax, Trump said, "I've never heard of him. I don't know who he is ... I don't know why they're doing it. It's crazy." 

Bad Bunny is a Puerto Rican musician who often performs in Spanish, and some Trump supporters don't think he was the right pick for the headlining performance given his past criticisms of the president. Bad Bunny's latest tour also specifically didn't include stops in the U.S. because of concerns over the potential that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) might show up. Trump and others might have preferred a MAGA approved artist like Kid Rock.

Social media responded to Donald Trump with some derision. One person on X posted, "Trying to invalidate Bad Bunny because you don't 'know' him is just an excuse to be edgy lmao because who doesn't know Bad Bunny?" And there were those who thought that Bad Bunny was the perfect choice: "Bad Bunny is literally the most streamed artist on Spotify globally for three consecutive years, with billions of streams and a fanbase that crosses demographics the NFL desperately wants to reach.... Personal familiarity and market dominance are two completely different metrics."

Other politicians have lashed out too. Georgia Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene posted on X in support of her bill to make English America's official language and called his performance "perverse [and] unwanted." In a conversation with Benny Johnson, conservative podcaster, Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security Kristi Noem said there would be an ICE presence at the Super Bowl, and she said that her message to the NFL about choosing Bad Bunny to perform was, "they suck and we'll win," via Instagram.

Bad Bunny has taken the backlash against his Super Bowl performance in stride. He joked about it in his "Saturday Night Live" monologue, including a section in Spanish, and he noted that if you couldn't understand it, "You have four months to learn."