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A Puerto Rican as un-American? Check a map

Los Angeles Times

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October 04, 2025

IS THERE A BETTER inkblot test for America right now than reaction to Bad Bunny being the halftime act for Super Bowl LX?

- LZ GRANDERSON COLUMNIST

A Puerto Rican as un-American? Check a map

SOME COMMENTATORS have criticized the NFL for selecting Bad Bunny to perform at February's Super Bowl halftime show.

(GLADYS VEGA Getty Images)

Soon after his name was announced, social media exploded into meritocracy debates as if the National Football League’s decisions are culturally motivated and not commercially. Taylor Swift is the most streamed artist in Spotify history. Bad Bunny is No. 2. For a domestic sports league trying to grow its popularity globally, the rationale seems clear.

And yet because he is a Puerto Rican who sings in Spanish, conservative talking heads must project outrage and offer listeners nonsensical objections.

“It’s so shameful they've decided to pick somebody who seems to hate America so much to represent them at the halftime show,” Corey Lewandowski, a longtime confidant of President Trump who currently advises the Department of Homeland Security, told conservative podcast host Benny Johnson. “We should be trying to be inclusive, not exclusive. There are plenty of great bands and entertainment people who could be playing at that show that would be bringing people together and not separating them.”

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