As Bad Bunny is poised to make history as the first Super Bowl halftime artist to perform solely in Spanish, Donald Trump’s former campaign manager Corey Lewandowski warned that ICE agents will be present at the national event.
During an interview for Benny Johnson’s series “The Benny Show,” the host asked Lewandowski if “ICE will have enforcement at the Super Bowl for the Bad Bunny Super Bowl halftime.” Lewandowski replied, “There is nowhere you can provide safe haven to people who are in this country illegally. Not the Super Bowl and nowhere else.”
“We will find you, we will apprehend you, we will put you in a detention facility, and we will deport you,” he continued. “So know that is a very real situation under this administration, which is completely contrary to how it used to be.”
Lewandowski called the decision to choose Bunny as the halftime performer “shameful” and accused him of seeming to “hate America,” before pointing to other “great bands and entertainment people who could be playing at that show” instead.
“If there are illegal aliens, I don’t care if it’s a concert for Johnny Smith or Bad Bunny or anybody else, we’re going to do enforcement everywhere because we are going to make Americans safe,” said Lewandowski. “That is a directive from the president. If you’re in this country illegally, do yourself a favor: Go home.”
Bunny has established himself as one of the most mainstream and popular artists both in the country and globally. The Grammy winner was the most streamed artist on Spotify for three years from 2020 to 2022, has the most-streamed album in the history of Spotify (Un Verano Sin Ti), and saw multiple tracks from his latest album, DeBÍ TiRAR MáS FOToS, reach Number One this year on the Billboard Hot 100, Apple Music, and Spotify. And on Sunday DeBÍ TiRAR MáS FOToS became the first album of 2025 to surpass 7 billion streams on Spotify.
Prior to his announcement as the performer of the 2026 Super Bowl halftime show, Bunny explained why he left the continental United States off his upcoming Debí Tirar Más Fotos world tour, saying the decision was tied to the Trump administration’s recent mass deportations targeting Latinos.
“There were many reasons why I didn’t show up in the U.S., and none of them were out of hate — I’ve performed there many times,” Bunny said. “All of [the shows] have been successful. All of them have been magnificent.”
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The singer continued, “But there was the issue of — like, fucking ICE could be outside [my concert]. And it’s something that we were talking about and very concerned about.”
Unsurprisingly, the announcement that Bunny, a vocal critic of President Trump’s political agenda, will play the Super Bowl ignited outrage from the MAGA base. However, whether conservatives agree or not, Bunny continues to be one the most popular artists in the world and his performance on the nation’s biggest stage will no doubt further cement his record-breaking legacy.