President Trump confirmed he’s not attending the Super Bowl this year, complaining about the slate of performers and saying it ultimately came down to the distance he’d have to travel.
Trump told The New York Post during an Oval Office interview that he wasn’t pleased with the selection of Puerto Rican singer Bad Bunny for the halftime show, or with the addition of Green Day for the opening ceremony. Both bands have made statements against the Trump administration and their policies.
“I’m anti-them. I think it’s a terrible choice. All it does is sow hatred. Terrible,” the president said. He also noted that his reason for skipping was that the Super Bowl is being played this year in California.
“It’s just too far away. I would. I’ve [gotten] great hands [at] the Super Bowl. They like me,” Trump told NY Post. “I would go if, you know, it was a little bit shorter.”
Trump made history as the first sitting president to attend a Super Bowl while in office last year when he watched the Philadelphia Eagles beat the Kansas City Chiefs 40-22. That game took place in New Orleans.
Trump already said it was “absolutely ridiculous” that Bad Bunny was selected to perform at Super Bowl LX this year.
“This guy does not seem like a unifying entertainer and a lot of folks don’t even know who he is,” Newsmax’s Greg Kelly said during a phone interview in October, as The Daily Wire previously reported. Kelly asked Trump if people should “entertain blowing off the NFL.”
“I never heard of him. I don’t know who he is, I don’t know why they’re doing it, it’s crazy, and then they blame it on some promoter that they hired to pick up entertainment, I think it’s absolutely ridiculous,” Trump added.
Bad Bunny, whose real name is Benito Ocasio, had already said he refused to perform in the United States due to Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers doing their jobs and enforcing federal immigration laws.
Ocasio referred to ICE agents as “motherf***ers” and “sons of b****es” in a video he posted to Instagram.
The three-time Grammy Award-winner said during an interview that he didn’t book any tour stops in the United States because he was worried ICE agents would target concert attendees.
“There was the issue of — like, f***ing ICE could be outside. And it’s something that we were talking about and very concerned about.”
Social media users also pointed out that none of Bad Bunny’s songs are in English. He later addressed the backlash he and the NFL received following the announcement, advising viewers to learn Spanish if they didn’t like it.
