President Donald Trump says he won't attend Super Bowl

Chase Hunter, Bay Area News Group on Jan 24, 2026

Published in Football

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President Donald Trump said he would not attend Super Bowl LX in Santa Clara, Calif., on Feb. 8, citing travel issues and criticizing the scheduled Super Bowl performances of outspoken anti-Trump artists Bad Bunny, the Puerto Rican pop star, and Green Day, the rebellious East Bay rock group.

In an interview with the New York Post published on Sunday, the president chastised the Super Bowl performers as poor choices that would be divisive.

“I’m anti-them. I think it’s a terrible choice. All it does is sow hatred. Terrible,” Trump told the New York Post on Jan. 24. “It’s just too far away. I would. I’ve (gotten) great hands (at) the Super Bowl… I would go if, you know, it was a little bit shorter.”

The decision is a break from the president’s appearance at last year’s Super Bowl in New Orleans, which marked the first time a sitting president had attended the National Football League championship game.

Bad Bunny and Green Day have long been critical of the president over each of his terms. Notably, Bad Bunny excluded the U.S. from his world tour over fears of Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids that may target his fans.

“I’m very excited to be doing the Super Bowl, and I know that people all around the world who love my music are also happy. ... It’s more than an achievement for myself, it’s an achievement for all of us …,” Bad Bunny said during an appearance on Saturday Night Live last year.

When Bad Bunny was announced as the Super Bowl halftime performer in October last year, it sparked a backlash among the president’s supporters. In an October 2025 interview, Trump said of Bad Bunny, “I never heard of him. I don’t know who he is. I don’t know why they’re doing it, it’s crazy, and then they blame it on some promoter that they hired to pick up entertainment. I think its absolutely ridiculous.”

More recently, Green Day lead singer Billie Joe Armstrong condemned the Trump administration in the aftermath of the ICE shooting of Renee Good in Minnesota when he changed the lyrics of the song “American Idiot,” singing “I’m not a part of the MAGA agenda.”