“Are we there yet?”
Trump has announced he will not travel to this year’s Super Bowl. That’s good news for people who want to watch the game without the distraction of the obligatory cutaways to an orange miasma mistaking boos for cheers. Why the no-show? Trump explained that he plans to skip the 8 February championship game at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, CA, because the trip is “just too far away.”
Poor baby. Mind you, it’s understandable. When you are almost 80, and your health isn’t what it once was, long plane trips can be a challenge. Even if you don’t have to go through security, wait in line to take off, circle your destination until a landing slot opens up, or pick up your bags, and wonder if your ride will show up.
It makes you question if distance was the real reason for his non-attendance. Perhaps instead, it was because the National Football League showed stones when so many others were kowtowing to blustering threats.
The NFL proves it’s the real tough guy
From the beginning of Trump 2.0, supposedly powerful institutions have rolled over to appease America’s defective chief executive. Prestigious universities, leading law firms, and media titans have thrown money at him instead of standing up to the bloviating bully. Even the World’s largest single sports authority, FIFA, has offered unctuous servility with a fake Peace Prize.
However, one American institution has told the aging pestilence to practice his extortion elsewhere.
The NFL has swatted away his barbs and stuck to its Super Bowl LX entertainment guns. They invited global superstar, Bad Bunny, to headline the halftime music extravaganza. The selection was provocative. They could have chosen some anodyne country act. A mainstream pop star. Or some aging rock and roller from the golden age.
Instead, they selected the controversial Puerto Rican (he’s brown and speaks Spanish). Controversial (at least in MAGA precincts) because in September, he announced he would have no US dates for his 2025/26 world tour. At the time, he explained his thinking.
"People from the US could come here to see the show. Latinos and Puerto Ricans of the United States could also travel here, or to any part of the world. But there was the issue that ... like, fucking ICE could be outside (my concert). And it's something that we were talking about and very concerned about."
MAGA misdiagnoses the reaction
Nevertheless, the NFL still picked him to headline the halftime. Predictably, the right’s social media provocateurs turned the clickbait outrage to 11. Benny Johnson’s take was typical. He tweeted:
This is Bad Bunny. He was just announced as the 2026 Super Bowl halftime show.- Massive Trump hater - Anti-ICE activist - No songs in English. He even canceled his entire U.S. tour for this reason:
“F***ing ICE could be outside my concert. And it’s something that we were talking about and very concerned about.”
The NFL is self-destructing year after year.
My advice? Don’t ask Benny how to bet. His prognosis of the NFL’s health was off the mark. The Hollywood Reporter had the facts. In a piece titled: “TV Ratings: NFL Regular Season [2025] Grows Across the Board,” it pointed out that “the league’s broadcast partners all see year-to-year gains.”
Conclusion
Trump is old. He knows his mystique is evaporating. And he doesn’t want to risk looking like a small man in front of an audience that will be north of 100 million. Well north.
