President Donald Trump reacted to Bad Bunny being named next year’s Super Bowl halftime performer — before turning his attention to another point of contention with the NFL.
Trump, 79, appeared on Newsmax’s Greg Kelly Reports on Monday, October 6, where he was asked about a potential “boycott” of the league after the Puerto Rican rapper, 31, was named the halftime performer at 2026’s Super Bowl LX.
“I’ve never heard of him,” Trump claimed via phone. “I don’t know who he is. I don’t know why they’re doing it. It’s, like, crazy.”
Trump added, “I think it’s absolutely ridiculous.”
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With his Bad Bunny criticism out of the way, Trump also addressed the NFL’s new kickoff rules, which were made permanent at the start of the 2025 season.
“While we’re at it, I’d like for them to change the kickoff rule, which looks ridiculous,” Trump argued. “Where the ball is kicked and the ball is floating in the air and everyone is standing there watching it.”
Per the new rules, the ball is kicked off from the kicking team’s 35-yard line, but every player on the kicking team, other than the kicker, lines up with at least one foot on the returning team’s 40-yard line. Players must also wait to move until the ball hits the ground or is touched by a returner inside the 20-yard line.
The rule was implemented as a way to prevent injuries during kickoff returns.
“It’s not any safer than the regular kickoff,” Trump continued. “I think it just looks so terrible. I think it really demeans football, to be honest with you. It’s a great game. But it demeans football.”
Bad Bunny was announced as the Super Bowl LX halftime show performer on September 28. The musician will hit the stage at Santa Clara, California’s Levi’s Stadium, home of the San Francisco 49ers, on February 8, 2026.
Bad Bunny reacted to some of the backlash to the announcement during his Saturday Night Live hosting gig on Saturday, October 4.
“You may not know this, but I’m doing the Super Bowl halftime show,” he said during his monologue. “I’m very happy and I think everyone is very happy about it! Even Fox News.”
SNL then showed a montage of conservative news coverage edited to say, “Bad Bunny is my favorite musician and he should be the next president.”
After briefly speaking in Spanish during his monologue, Bad Bunny joked, “If you didn’t understand now what I just said, you have four months to learn!”
Many conservative pundits and activists have come out against Bad Bunny being named the Super Bowl halftime performer, including former race car driver Danica Patrick.
“Oh fun,” Patrick, 42, wrote via X on September 29. “No songs in English should not be allowed at one of America’s highest rated television events of the year … not just for sports.”
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Patrick doubled down on her criticism during an appearance on Steve Bannon’s “War Room” podcast on Friday, October 3.
“I don’t have any problem with someone performing at halftime that is not from the United States, although Bad Bunny is technically a citizen because he was born in Puerto Rico,” she said. “He wasn’t necessarily born in America. I don’t care where you’re actually born. What I care about is that I can sing along to the music. His music is almost nothing in English.”
Despite some pushback, Bad Bunny getting the halftime spot has also received plenty of praise, including from 2020 halftime show performer Jennifer Lopez.
“I think he’s about to blow everybody’s mind,” Lopez said Monday on the Today show. “It’s an introduction to some people.”
