Remember when snack choices fueled the most contentious debates around Super Bowl halftime? Cheetos versus Doritos. Hot wings versus garlic knots. And who the hell brought carrot sticks?!<\/p>\n
Now Turning Point USA, the far-right organization founded by slain MAGA activist Charlie Kirk<\/a>, has presented its followers with more tough choices: Who should play at Super Bowl LX\u2019s halftime show?<\/p>\n Never mind that the NFL already announced earlier this month that Puerto Rican superstar Bad Bunny<\/a> had landed the spot. Turning Point USA announced Thursday that it would be staging its own counterprogramming<\/a> in protest of the league\u2019s choice. It\u2019ll be called \u201cThe All American Halftime Show\u201d \u2014 and it most certainly won\u2019t be in Spanish.<\/p>\n Ever since the NFL announced that Bad Bunny (whose real name is Benito Antonio Martinez Ocasio) would play the Big Game on Feb. 8 at Levi\u2019s Stadium in Santa Clara, critics have been decrying the decision as an assault on Americanism.<\/p>\n House Speaker Mike Johnson said booking Bad Bunny was \u201ca terrible decision.\u201d<\/p>\n President Trump, who admitted he\u2019d never heard of Bad Bunny before the late September Super Bowl announcement, said the NFL\u2019s booking of the performer was \u201cabsolutely ridiculous.\u201d<\/p>\n White House advisor Corey Lewandowski said it was \u201cshameful they\u2019ve decided to pick somebody who seems to hate America so much.\u201d<\/p>\n Yet in comparison with other artists and celebrities who\u2019ve widely criticized the president and his policies, Bad Bunny is not all that political or outspoken. He has, however, expressed concerns about the potential of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detaining fans at his concerts. The artist said last month that he would not book any U.S. dates for his tour over fears that fans would be swept up by ICE. \u201cThere was the issue of \u2014 like, f\u2014 ICE could be outside [my concert]. And it\u2019s something that we were talking about and very concerned about,\u201d he told i-D magazine<\/a>.<\/p>\n That was enough to deem Bad Bunny an enemy of the MAGA state and to characterize his Super Bowl show as part of a larger, hostile Latino invasion.<\/p>\n But let\u2019s call it what it is: politicians and their pundits leveraging Hispanophobia for votes, influence and donations. The performer represents a population that\u2019s been targeted by the current administration via unconstitutional sweeps of brown people in American cities, regardless of their immigration status. Bad Bunny is a U.S. citizen, like many of the folks with no criminal records who\u2019ve been detained and even deported. Vilifying the artist and those who look and speak like him has generated votes for the right and deflected from concerns about the fragile economy and skyrocketing cost of living under Trump.<\/p>\n Turning Point advertises its planned counterprogramming as a show \u201cCelebrating Faith, Family, & Freedom\u201d and asking followers to weigh in on music genres they would like to hear at the alternative halftime show. The first option on the ballot? \u201cAnything in English.\u201d<\/p>\n The survey is situated right under a donate button, and another option to click \u201cyes\u201d to approve receiving \u201crecurring automated promotional & fundraising texts from Turning Point.\u201d<\/p>\n Despite the fact that the 79-year-old president had never heard of the wildly popular artist before, Bad Bunny is a three-time Grammy Award winner, a global superstar and has bested Taylor Swift\u2019s Billboard chart numbers in the U.S.<\/p>\n