What Bad Bunny Has Said About Donald Trump

Bad Bunny has been a vocal critic of President Donald Trump over the years, and his upcoming performance at the 2026 Super Bowl halftime show has shone a spotlight on his previous remarks.

Newsweek reached out to Trump’s representative via email for comment on Monday.

Why It Matters

The Puerto Rican superstar, born Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio, was announced as the headliner for Super Bowl LX by the National Football League last month. The news was quickly criticized by Trump’s supporters and the president himself due to the singer’s political and immigration stances and his decision not to sing in English during the show. Others, including Jennifer Lopez and Bruno Mars, defended the choice.

What To Know

Bad Bunny’s public critiques appeared to begin in 2017 following the Trump administration’s widely scrutinized response to Hurricane Maria. The singer wore a shirt reading: “¿Eres Twitero o Presidente?” (“Are You a Tweeter or President?”) at a benefit concert following the hurricane, referencing Trump’s lack of effective disaster aid to Puerto Rico.

As Trump’s administration intensified immigration raids and expanded U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) enforcement capabilities, Bad Bunny grew increasingly vocal about the real-world impact on his fans and community. In a September 2025 interview, he explained his decision to avoid U.S. stops on his world tour.

“There was the issue of, like, f****** ICE could be outside [my concert],” the three-time Grammy Award winner told i-D magazine. “And it’s something that we were talking about and very concerned about.”

The 31-year-old’s engagement reached new visibility after a comedian at a Trump presidential campaign event in October 2024 made a derogatory remark about Puerto Rico.

In response, Bad Bunny publicly endorsed Democrat Kamala Harris in the election, sharing a campaign video on social media that criticized Trump’s hurricane response: “He abandoned the island, tried to block aid after back-to-back devastating hurricanes and offered nothing more than paper towels and insults,” Harris said in the clip.

Bad Bunny’s 2025 song and music video, “Nuevayol,” closes with a voice imitating Trump over a radio, stating: “I made a mistake. I want to apologize to the immigrants in America…This country is nothing without the immigrants. This country is nothing without Mexicans, Dominicans, Puerto Ricans, Colombians, Venezuelans, Cubans.”

This statement, though satirical, was widely interpreted as a critique of Trump.

What People Are Saying

After being named Super Bowl halftime performer, Bad Bunny said: “What I’m feeling goes beyond myself. It’s for those who came before me and ran countless yards so I could come in and score a touchdown…this is for my people, my culture, and our history. Ve y dile a tu abuela, que seremos el HALFTIME SHOW DEL SUPER BOWL.”

President Donald Trump downplayed Bad Bunny’s cultural impact in an interview on Newsmax on October 6: “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…I think it’s absolutely ridiculous.”

NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said in a news conference when pressed about the backlash: “The NFL is not considering dropping Bad Bunny. It’s carefully thought through. I’m not sure we’ve ever selected an artist where we didn’t have some blowback or criticism. It’s pretty hard to do when you have literally hundreds of millions of people that are watching.”

Bruno Mars defended the NFL’s decision in a message posted to X: “Go get em Bad Bunny!”

Jennifer Lopez told CBS Mornings host Gayle King earlier this month: “Music and art transcends language. It doesn’t matter. And he’s done that more than anybody of any generation. He really has…It’s a big platform for artists. It’s probably the biggest stage that you could hope to be on, and I think it’s wonderful that people will get exposed to him who don’t know him.”