President Donald Trump became the latest conservative to criticize the selection of this year’s Super Bowl halftime performer, Puerto Rican megastar Bad Bunny, telling Newsmax’s Greg Kelly that the choice was “absolutely ridiculous.”
“I don’t know who he is. I don’t know why they’re doing it — it’s, like, crazy,” Trump said in the interview on Monday night. “They blame it on some promoter they hired to pick up entertainment. I think it’s absolutely ridiculous.”
Super Bowl halftime performers are selected by the NFL in collaboration with Apple Music and Roc Nation, the entertainment company founded by Jay-Z.
Bad Bunny, who performs primarily in Spanish, was announced as this year’s Super Bowl halftime performer in late September. A three-time Grammy Award winner who released his latest album, “Debí Tirar Más Fotos,” in January, he will be the first Latin-American male to headline the halftime show. He also hosted the season premiere of “Saturday Night Live” over the weekend.
Earlier this year, the singer, songwriter and producer used his platform to deride Trump for his immigration policies. He has said that he did not include any stops in the continental United States on his latest tour out of concern that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement would raid the concert venues.
Three days after Bad Bunny was announced as the halftime performer for the Feb. 8 game in Santa Clara, Calif., a Trump administration official said ICE agents would be at the game.
“There is nowhere that you can provide safe haven to people who are in this country illegally. Not the Super Bowl, and nowhere else,” Corey Lewandowski, chief adviser to Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem, said during an appearance on “The Benny Show,” hosted by the conservative podcaster Benny Johnson. “We will find you. We will apprehend you. We will put you in a detention facility, and we will deport you.”
In an appearance on the same show on Friday, Noem echoed Lewandowski’s comments, and when Johnson suggested Bad Bunny’s selection could be a message from the NFL to the Trump administration, she said, “They suck, and we’ll win, and God will bless us.”
The NFL did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Tuesday.
Bad Bunny’s selection was happily greeted by Zaileen Janmohamed, the president and CEO of the Bay Area Host Committee.
“We are confident that Bad Bunny will deliver an unforgettable experience for fans in Levi’s Stadium and watching globally,” he said in a statement at the time. “This selection further amplifies the Bay Area’s position as a premier destination for world-class events, and we look forward to a spectacular show that showcases the unique spirit and diversity of our region.”
Source link
