Bad Bunny hits back at Kristi Noem and MAGA handwringing over Super Bowl half-time selection

The Trump Administration can’t resist a culture war fight.

US Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem is locked in a feud with Bad Bunny, after the Puerto Rican artist was selected for the high-profile role of half-time performer for next year’s Super Bowl clash.

Speaking on a podcast hosted by right-wing personality Benny Johnson, Ms Noem said that the Administration’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) unit would be “all over the event”, effectively threatening to send agents to the sports competition.

She said, “I have the responsibility for making sure everybody goes to the Super Bowl has the opportunity to enjoy it and leave” and added that the event was only for “law-abiding Americans who love this country”, which narrows the definition of “everybody”.

Johnson’s podcast is also the platform on which FCC chair Brendan Carr last month threatened Disney over Jimmy Kimmel when he said, “We could do this the easy way or the hard way”.

Ms Noem said that the NFL “suck” for picking Bad Bunny and that “we’ll win and be proud of ourselves at the end of the day, and they won’t be able to sleep at night because they don’t know what they believe, and they’re so weak”.

Bad Bunny, whose legal name is Benito Antonio Martinez Ocasio, wasn’t going to take the backlash from Noem and other right-wing critics lying down.

He was booked as the guest host on Saturday Night Live and used the opening monologue to hit back.

He said he “was very happy” and then went on to joke that even Fox News was supporting his gig, before rolling a video of selectively edited clips of the network’s presenters that appeared to show them saying, “Bad Bunny is my favourite musician and he should be the next president”.

He ended his speech in Spanish, “Especially all of the Latinos and Latinas in the world here in the US who have worked to open doors. It’s more than a win for myself, it’s a win for all of us.

“Our footprints and our contributions in his country, no one will ever be able to take that away or erase it.”

Switching back to English, he added, “If you didn’t understand what I just said, you have four months to learn”.

Bad Bunny has previously criticised Donald Trump’s escalated anti-immigration crackdown which has seen masked ICE agents target non-white people, including those who turned out to be American citizens, in raids.

Bad Bunny revealed he chose not to include US dates on his latest tour because of fears ICE agents would target his fans outside of any concert venues. He played 31 shows as part of a residency in Puerto Rico.

“Latinos and Puerto Ricans of the United States could also travel here, or to any part of the world. But there was the issue of, like, f—king ICE outside (my concert). And it’s something that we were talking about and very concerned about.”

Bad Bunny backed Kamala Harris in the 2024 US presidential election in part because the former vice president had said that she “will never forget what Donald Trump did and did not do when Puerto Rico needed a supportive and competent leader”.

Bad Bunny has used his popularity – he was the most streamed artist on Spotify in 2020, 2021 and 2022 – to shine a light on his home and other Latin communities, and that has sometimes put him at odds with Mr Trump and his supporters.

Puerto Rico is an unincorporated territory of America, which has a non-voting resident commissioner representative in the US congress.

During Mr Trump’s first term, the island suffered enormous damage from Hurricane Maria, resulting in almost 3000 deaths and a blackout that lasted up to 11 months in some parts.

A 2021 report found that officials from the first Trump Administration obstructed an investigation looking into why his officials withheld $US20 billion in hurricane relief.

In 2017, Bad Bunny wore a T-shirt during a Billboard interview that asked in Spanish, “Are you a Tweeter or a President?”, and said it was a message, direct or indirect, to “our friend”, referring to Mr Trump.

Bad Bunny broke out appealing to the large Spanish-speaking global community but has increasingly become a massive star on the international stage. His fourth album, Un Verano Sin Ti, spent 13 weeks in the number spot of the Billboard 200, and he has won three Grammy Awards.

He has competed in the WWE wrestling competition, and appeared in films Caught Stealing, Bullet Train and in a scene-stealing turn in Happy Gilmore. He has hosted Saturday Night Live three times.

He has two tour dates in Sydney in February and March.