The choice of Puerto Rican music star Bad Bunny to headline the 2026 Super Bowl Halftime Show has sparked a lot of anger, mostly from conservative and pro-Trump groups who don’t like his past political criticisms, especially those about President Donald Trump’s immigration policies. On February 8th, the Super Bowl will be held in Santa Clara, California.
Homeland Security Officials Give Strong Warning
The criticism got worse, and officials from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) even gave clear warnings.
Corey Lewandowski, a former Trump adviser who now works for DHS, made a strong threat on The Benny Show, saying that US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents would be at the Super Bowl. Lewandowski said, “There is no place you can keep people safe who are in this country illegally.” Not the Super Bowl and not anywhere else. “We will find you, arrest you, put you in a detention center, and send you back to your home country.”
Kristi Noem, the US Secretary of Homeland Security, said the same thing: “We’ll be all over that place.” We are going to follow the law. So, I don’t think people should go to the Super Bowl unless they are Americans who follow the law and love this nation.
Bad Bunny Answers on SNL
Bad Bunny talked up the subject directly when he hosted the Season 51 premiere of Saturday Night Live.
The singer told the crowd how excited he was: “You might not know this, but I’m doing the Super Bowl halftime show and I’m very happy. I think everyone is happy about it, even Fox News.”
Then he gave a heartfelt speech in Spanish to his huge Latino following base:
“Especially all the Latinos and Latinas in the world who have worked to open doors here in the United States. This is more than a win for me; it’s a win for all of us. No one will ever be able to take away or erase our footprints and contributions in this country.”
He ended his response with a fun challenge in English to his opponents, saying, “And if you don’t know what I just said, you have four months to learn.”
False information spreads online
There has also been a lot of incorrect information and claims on social media after the announcement:
False Cancellation allegations: Some viral blogs said that Bad Bunny had been replaced as the halftime act and that Coca-Cola had pulled its Super Bowl sponsorship in protest. Neither of these allegations was true.
Hoax Statement: Another well-known hoax involved American Christian singer Brandon Lake. A Facebook post that went viral falsely claimed that Lake had called Bad Bunny a “Spanish-singing puppet of the Left” and said that “the league has just declared war on America.” There is no proof that Lake ever said anything like this or talked about the Super Bowl performance.