Super Bowl 2026 halftime show: Bad Bunny vs Charlie Kirk's 'Turning Point USA'. What to expect

Super Bowl 2026 halftime show will feature Bad Bunny at Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara, California. Bad Bunny's event has drawn sharp reactions from US President Donald Trump and his administration. Meanwhile, "Turning Point USA", the conservative organization founded by late Charlie Kirk, said it would present its own counterprogramming, a "one-of-a-kind streaming event" called the All-American Halftime Show.

Super Bowl 2026 Bad Bunny Controversy

Yet before he has sung a note, Bad Bunny's Super Bowl appearance has become a political flashpoint amid the Trump administration's immigration crackdown and the fears it has stirred among Latino communities in the United States, immigrant or not. When the NFL announced him as its halftime headliner in September, sports and media observers saw a shrewd move by a league seeking to expand its global footprint. But the White House and right-wing media convulsed in condemnation.


Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said that Immigration and Customs Enforcement would "be all over" the game, to be held at Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara, California. Conservative commentator Tomi Lahren dismissed Bad Bunny as "not an American artist." (Puerto Rico is, of course, a U.S. territory.) In a recent interview, President Donald Trump said he would not attend the game, calling Bad Bunny's selection "a terrible choice" and saying that "all it does is sow hatred."

Charlie Kirk's 'Turning Point USA'

Turning Point USA's All-American Halftime Show that will feature Kid Rock and country singers Brantley Gilbert, Lee Brice and Gabby Barrett. "We're taking the American Culture War to the MAIN STAGE," the organization said on its website last month, adding: "No 'woke' garbage. Just TRUTH. Just FREEDOM. Just AMERICA."

Some 90,000 fans have flocked to the Bay Area, which is expected to receive a $500 million economic boost from the sports bonanza.

The game is being played out against the backdrop of Trump's divisive and brutal immigration crackdown. Anger has soared over the killing of two US citizens by federal agents in Minneapolis last month.

NFL security chiefs this week scotched media reports that US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers would have a role at the game.

But politics may not be entirely absent. Bad Bunny used the Grammys stage last weekend to condemn ICE.

Details of his Super Bowl set are under wraps, though Bad Bunny has pledged to showcase Puerto Rican culture in "a huge party."