Bad Bunny ends halftime show with a pan‑American call for unity

Puerto Rican star held out a football with the words ‘Together, we are America’ emblazoned on it

Bad Bunny concluded his breathless Super Bowl halftime show performance with a powerful call for unity amid political tensions in the U.S.

The Puerto Rican superstar, 31, made history as the first artist to perform a halftime show entirely in Spanish, as well as becoming the first Latin solo act to take on one of the world’s most coveted stages.

Towards the end of the set, the artist was handed a football with the words “Together, we are America” written on it.

He told the crowd, “God bless America,” before listing the names of every country in the Americas.

Since Bad Bunny was first announced as the big game’s headliner, there has been backlash from prominent MAGA figures, with many of them labeling the “DtMF” singer a “massive Trump hater” and an “anti-ICE activist.” Some also slammed him for having “no songs in English.”

Bad Bunny held a football emblazoned with the message, ‘Together, we are America’ (Getty)

The Puerto Rican star told the crowd, ‘God bless America,’ before listing the names of every country in the Americas (Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved)

However, the rapper has not backed away from his criticism of the current presidential administration and its ongoing crackdown on immigrants in the U.S.

“Before I say thanks to God, I’m going to say ICE out,” he said in one of his acceptance speeches at last week’s Grammy Awards before an impassioned call to remember that “hatred will only breed more hate.”

“The only thing that's more powerful than hate is love,” he said. “So, please, we need to be different. If we fight, we have to do it with love. We don’t hate them. We love our people. We love our family and there's a way to do it, with love, and don't forget that.”

After the halftime show, Trump unsurprisingly slammed the rapper’s performance, writing on Truth Social: “The Super Bowl Halftime Show is absolutely terrible, one of the worst, EVER! It makes no sense, is an affront to the Greatness of America, and doesn’t represent our standards of Success, Creativity, or Excellence.”

Bad Bunny’s message of unity clearly did not go down well with the president.

“Nobody understands a word this guy is saying, and the dancing is disgusting, especially for young children that are watching from throughout the U.S.A., and all over the World,” Trump raged.

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“This ‘Show’ is just a ‘slap in the face’ to our Country, which is setting new standards and records every single day — including the Best Stock Market and 401(k)s in History!” the president fumed. “There is nothing inspirational about this mess of a Halftime Show and watch, it will get great reviews from the Fake News Media, because they haven’t got a clue of what is going on in the REAL WORLD.”

In his four-star review of the halftime show for The Independent, Mark Beaumont wrote that Bad Bunny’s “wild, inclusive fiesta was an inherently political stand.”

“In six minutes flat, Puerto Rico itself emigrates to the sour heart of America. As the number-based fighting of Super Bowl LX stops and the ICE agents start scanning the stands, an entire Salinas sugar cane field grows out of the grass of Santa Clara’s Levi’s Stadium, populated by coconut sellers, dice players, boxers and twerkers,” writes Beaumont. “And one man in white wandering through this colourful maelstrom on a mission to show the world the vivacious worth of his people.”