Conservatives are battling one another over Bad Bunny\u2019s Super Bowl performance and the political wisdom of President Trump\u2019s criticism of the Puerto Rican superstar as the GOP sees signs it is quickly losing Hispanic support in polls.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
President Trump blasted Bad Bunny\u2019s performance as an \u201caffront\u201d to the United States and \u201cone of the worst of the worst,\u201d and his criticisms were echoed by a number of those in the MAGA movement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt makes no sense, is an affront to the Greatness of America, and doesn\u2019t represent our standards of Success, Creativity, or Excellence. Nobody understands a word this guy is saying,\u201d Trump said in a post on Truth Social.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But there were notable dissents to Trump\u2019s criticism of one of the most popular musical artists in the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And some of those criticisms themselves touched on politics and conservative themes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Caroline Sunshine, a deputy communications director during Trump\u2019s presidential run who worked in Trump\u2019s first administration, praised Bad Bunny\u2019s performance for featuring a real wedding ceremony on stage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cUnpopular but interesting take: there was only one Super Bowl halftime show this year that highlighted the institution of marriage. And it wasn\u2019t the Turning Point halftime show,\u201d Sunshine wrote, referring to a counterprogramming event featuring Kid Rock that was sponsored by the conservative group.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Former Trump staffer Harrison Fields did not directly address Bad Bunny\u2019s performance, but he touted his own ties to Puerto Rico in a post on the social platform X.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cLast time I checked, my Puerto Rico-born grandmother was a full American citizen\u2014and she voted for Trump,\u201d Fields said, later posting a picture with the U.S. territory\u2019s \u201cREPUBLICAN\u201d Gov. Jenniffer Gonz\u00e1lez-Col\u00f3n at Trump\u2019s inauguration last year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Culture wars have at times been political winners for Trump and the GOP, but the debate over Bad Bunny and the halftime show comes as polls show Trump and Republicans are losing Hispanic support, a key strength for the president in the 2024 election.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
While Trump lost Hispanic voters to Vice President Kamala Harris by 20 points in 2024, that\u2019s a jump from 2020, when Trump lost the category to former President Biden by 30 points, according to an election analysis of exit polling from The Associated Press, Fox News, and MSNBC.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Trump\u2019s disapproval rating with Latinos now stands at 70 percent, according to November data from the Pew Research Center. Of those Latinos who voted for Trump, 81 percent said they approved of his job performance, down from 93 percent at the beginning of his second term.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Mike Madrid, a Trump critic and Republican strategist who specializes in Latino voting behavior and trends, questioned the calculus of fighting over Bad Bunny in front of tens of millions of Americans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIf the Republicans don\u2019t stop the hemorrhaging with young, male Latinos thirty [years old] and younger, they\u2019re cooked,\u201d Madrid said. \u201cThis shows that they\u2019re not even aware of the size of the problem that they have.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Bad Bunny\u2019s performance was largely a celebration of Latin America and its culture, featuring scenes of sugar fields in a nod to the performer\u2019s native Puerto Rico; old men playing dominos; and vendors selling tacos, coco frio, and piraguas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
At the conclusion of the show, Bad Bunny marched ahead of a parade of flags from the Western Hemisphere as he named every country located in the Americas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cBad Bunny and a USA flag? YES PLEASE,\u201d conservative commentator and sports journalist Emily Austin said on X, adding in a separate post that criticisms over his ethnicity were \u201cweak.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sunday night\u2019s performance was less outwardly political than Bad Bunny\u2019s acceptance speech at the Grammy Awards earlier this month, where he denounced Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cBefore I say thanks to God, I\u2019m going to say: ICE out,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019re not savages. We\u2019re not animals. We\u2019re not aliens.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The criticism galvanized MAGA to come out en masse to condemn the remarks, but halftime show opinions were noticeably more mixed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Austin later addressed the divide among conservatives in a post on X, noting that she lost followers over her posts in support of the performance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cNot everyone who loves America and loves our President thinks the same way on everything. Different perspectives and shared love of our country is our strength,\u201d Austin said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
One of the chief criticisms of the performance from a number of conservatives was that the majority of it was in Spanish instead of English.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cTo have a fully Spanish-language halftime show, with no subtitles, isn\u2019t inclusive. It\u2019s exclusive,\u201d Rep. Maria Salazar (R-Fla.) said in a post on X.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cUnfortunately, today, instead of talking about the great contributions Hispanics make to our country\u2014the legal ones and the undocumented\u2014we are debating how poorly this event missed the mark,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But some conservatives questioned the political wisdom of that line of attack.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe grifter influencers who jumped on this are the worst people to handle a topic that requires nuance,\u201d Giancarlo Sopo, a conservative media strategist and cultural writer told The Hill<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe real issue with Bad Bunny\u2019s performance isn\u2019t that he sang in Spanish. It\u2019s that the show was loaded with political subtext that flew over most people\u2019s heads, not to mention that he\u2019s hardly an ideal representative of Latino culture. Making this about language is politically asinine,\u201d he continued.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Bad Bunny\u2019s performance even seemed to divide some MAGA-friendly families.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Jake Paul, the boxer, described Bad Bunny as a \u201cfake American citizen\u201d and said on social media that people should turn away from the performance, which his own brother, the influencer and wrestler Logan Paul, publicly took issue with.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI love my brother but I don\u2019t agree with this,\u201d Logan Paul, who like Bad Bunny has performed with the WWE, wrote on X. \u201cPuerto Ricans are Americans & I\u2019m happy they were given the opportunity to showcase the talent that comes from the island.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Conservative media personality Meghan McCain also defended the performance in a post on X, saying \u201ceverything in life doesn\u2019t have to be ruined by politics.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI\u2019m sorry but I just genuinely question your taste level if you didn\u2019t enjoy the Bad Bunny halftime show,\u201d McCain wrote on the platform.<\/p>\n\n\n\n