President Donald Trump announced Saturday that he will skip next month’s Super Bowl in California, criticizing the halftime performers and saying the Santa Clara location is simply too far away. Trump, who attended last year’s championship game in New Orleans, made it clear that distance — and the entertainment lineup — played a role in his decision.
“It’s just too far away,” Trump told the New York Post. “I would, I’ve [gotten] great hands [at] the Super Bowl. They like me.” The president added that he would consider attending “if it was a little bit shorter,” referring to the long trip to Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, near San Jose.
Trump has also been openly critical of headline performer Bad Bunny since the artist was selected last year to handle halftime duties. “I don’t know who he is,” Trump told Newsmax in the fall. “I don’t know why they’re doing it. It’s crazy. And then they blame it on some promoter they hired to pick up entertainment. I think it’s absolutely ridiculous.” Rock band Green Day was also announced last week to perform before kickoff.
Both Bad Bunny and Green Day frontman Billie Joe Armstrong are known liberal performers who have publicly expressed their dislike for Trump. Bad Bunny said last fall that he chose to perform only in Puerto Rico during his residency show and avoided U.S. tour dates because he feared ICE agents could be present at his concerts. “There was the issue of, like, f---ing ICE could be outside,” he told i-D, saying he and his team were concerned about that possibility.
The 31-year-old singer also featured a Trump impersonation in his song “Nuevayol,” apologizing to immigrants in America and declaring that the country is “nothing without” immigrants from Latin America and the Caribbean. Armstrong, for his part, has compared Trump to Hitler in the past and has altered lyrics in Green Day’s song “American Idiot” during live performances to replace “redneck agenda” with “MAGA agenda,” according to The Independent.
While some entertainers continue using the Super Bowl spotlight to air political grievances, President Trump is staying focused on his priorities and choosing not to make a cross-country trip just to be serenaded by anti-Trump performers. The game will go on, the fans will still watch, and the president will keep doing what he does best — leading the country, whether or not Hollywood approves.
