The game was boring, but what wasn’t was the halftime show and the cultural firestorm that MAGA has created around the performance of Bad Bunny, amid U.S. ICE chaos.
MAGA picked a fight with Bad Bunny over the Super Bowl halftime show. They staged an alternative concert. They posted furious screeds on social media. They called for boycotts. And then 142.3 million people watched Bad Bunny make history while Kid Rock lip-synced to a backing track in front of roughly 6 million YouTube viewers for Turning Point USA.
That’s not a culture war. That’s a culture rout.
The whole debacle, from Donald Trump’s Truth Social meltdown to Megyn Kelly’s theatrical tears over Kid Rock’s performance, tells you everything you need to know about where MAGA stands in American culture right now: on the outside, screaming into the void, and selling merch while they do it.
Bad Bunny Made History. MAGA Made Memes.
Super Bowl LX’s halftime show was the first in the event’s history performed primarily in Spanish. Bad Bunny, the most streamed artist on the planet and a proud Puerto Rican, delivered a performance that featured Lady Gaga, Ricky Martin, a real wedding ceremony, and a closing message on the Levi’s Stadium video board that read: “The Only Thing More Powerful Than Hate is Love.”
The performance pulled in a record-shattering 142.3 million viewers. Country star Kacey Musgraves captured the mood perfectly on X: “Well. That made me feel more proudly American than anything Kid Rock has ever done.”
And how did the president of the United States respond to a historic cultural moment watched by most of the country? By racing to Truth Social to complain. “The Super Bowl Halftime Show is absolutely terrible, one of the worst, EVER!” Trump posted. “Nobody understands a word this guy is saying, and the dancing is disgusting, especially for young children.” He called it “a slap in the face to our country.”
A guy who sings in Spanish, performs a celebration of Latin American culture, features a surprise appearance by Lady Gaga, hosts a wedding on stage, and ends with a message about love over hate is a “slap in the face” to America. Got it. The White House even jumped in during the performance itself, posting “Make America Great Again” on Twitter, which, as many pointed out, is a pretty remarkable self-own one year into your own presidency.
The Turning Point USA “Alternative” Was Exactly What You’d Expect
Turning Point USA, the conservative organization founded by the late Charlie Kirk, staged what it called the “All-American Halftime Show” as counter-programming. The lineup featured Kid Rock, Brantley Gilbert (who opened in a “God, family, country” t-shirt), Lee Brice, and Gabby Barrett. It was, as Variety described it, less a protest event and more “a vintage CMT or Nashville Network special.”
But the real star of the show was Kid Rock’s lip-syncing, which was so obviously bad that social media erupted with mockery. Viewers immediately noticed that Rock’s mouth wasn’t matching the audio, and the comparisons to Milli Vanilli started flying within minutes.
“Kid Rock literally didn’t even know the words to lip sync to his own song,” one user wrote. Another added: “Worst lip syncing I’ve ever seen and I remember Milli Vanilli.” The backup track, as TMZ put it, “did most of the heavy lifting.”
The TPUSA broadcast peaked at roughly 6.1 million YouTube viewers. Compare that to Bad Bunny’s 142.3 million. That’s not counter-programming. That’s counter-productive.
Megyn Kelly Was “In Tears” And Nobody Believes Her
Perhaps the most absurd moment in the entire MAGA meltdown came courtesy of Megyn Kelly, who posted on X: “Congratulations @TPUSA, I am in tears at that BEAUTIFUL half-time show. Everyone did a spectacular job, it was perfect. THANK YOU!”
In tears. Over Kid Rock performing “Bawitdaba” from 1999 while visibly not matching his own lyrics. The same Megyn Kelly who has spent weeks suggesting ICE should be sent to Bad Bunny’s “compound” and mocking Eva Longoria’s accent. That Megyn Kelly was moved to actual tears by a lip-synced performance on a YouTube stream.
As one commenter put it: “I am in tears at how badly Kid Rock is lip syncing. It really is perfect though. A perfect representation of how inept MAGA actually are.”
Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth also signaled support for the TPUSA show on social media, because apparently that’s a normal thing for a Defense Secretary to be doing during the Super Bowl.
The Grift Is Always The Point
What makes the whole circus so transparent is what was running at the bottom of the TPUSA broadcast the entire time: a chyron hawking merchandise and begging for text signups. As Variety reported, “Those were the first words greeting thousands of viewers as they joined Turning Point’s YouTube channel.” The show concluded not with a message about love or unity, but with “Get involved” next to a QR code asking for money.
Bad Bunny ended with: “The Only Thing More Powerful Than Hate is Love.” TPUSA ended with: “Give us your email and credit card number.”
And TPUSA has already announced they want to do it again next year. Of course they do. The outrage machine doesn’t care about the music. It cares about the engagement metrics, the merch sales, and the donation links. Whether it’s supplements, gold coins, disaster kits, or whatever the grift du jour is, the formula is always the same: manufacture outrage, monetize the anger, repeat.
Kid Rock himself wasted no time, announcing that his cover of “Til Ya Can’t” would be available for purchase at midnight. Even the tribute to the late Charlie Kirk felt like it was positioned between solicitations.
The Culture War They Can’t Win
Here’s what MAGA still doesn’t understand: you can’t win a culture war when culture has moved past you. The NFL, whose owners skew conservative and donate heavily to Republican causes, chose Bad Bunny because he’s the biggest artist on the planet and because the league needs to grow globally. Charlotte Jones, the Dallas Cowboys’ chief brand officer, said it plainly: “We are on a global stage, and we can’t ever forget that. We have a mixed culture, and our whole society is based on immigrants who have come here and founded our country.”
When the Dallas Cowboys are too multicultural for you, you’ve lost the plot entirely.
Bad Bunny’s performance was a celebration of everything MAGA claims to hate: bilingualism, Latin culture, joy, dancing, love. But it was also stuffed with things they claim to champion: a wedding, a declaration of “God Bless America,” patriotism, family. The difference is that Bad Bunny actually meant it, while the TPUSA show used those concepts as decorations on a fundraising vehicle.
142.3 million to 6.1 million. That’s not a culture war. That’s a landslide.
Watch: Full Breakdown Of MAGA’s Super Bowl Meltdown
The video above breaks down the entire MAGA meltdown in detail, from Trump’s Truth Social rant to Kid Rock’s lip-sync disaster to Megyn Kelly’s performance-art tears. It’s a comprehensive look at how the right picked a fight with a global superstar and came away looking smaller than ever.