What REALLY happened in Super Bowl stadium during Bad Bunny’s halftime show: Humiliation for Turning Point as MAGA fans suffer embarrassment in stands

Too far away? Or simply too much to stomach?

Only Donald Trump knows the real reason behind his decision to miss Super Bowl LX. But from the stands at Levi’s Stadium on Sunday, through all the fireworks and smoke and falling confetti, one thing came into crystal focus: the President made the right call.

He would have hated this. He would have been bored by the attritional clash between the Seattle Seahawks and New England Patriots, when defenses reigned and excitement was confined to a few fits and starts.

More importantly, though, Trump would have recoiled at the spirit of fun and defiance that swept through Levi’s Stadium at halftime.

Twelve months ago, when he became the first sitting president to attend a Super Bowl, Trump was shown on the jumbotron in New Orleans. The response in Caesars Superdome? Mixed.

This year? He didn’t make the trip. ‘Just too far away,’ Trump said. On Sunday in Santa Clara, however, fans voted with their feet at halftime: perhaps the clearest indication of how Bad Bunny’s show went down? No one left their seat.

Trump and his MAGA allies had slammed the NFL’s decision to allow the Puerto Rican star to perform. They had threatened to send ICE agents to Levi’s Stadium, too. Bad Bunny has been a fierce critic of the president and his immigration policies, after all.

But despite all the backlash, the singer – real name Benito Antonio Martinez Ocasio – performed in Spanish. All except for one line, when he shouted: ‘God Bless America!’

The 31-year-old did use this 14-minute show to make a point. It was there – written in black and white, beamed out to the world. ‘The only thing more powerful than hate is love,’ read a message on the big screen.

And it was there in Bad Bunny’s final flourish, when he honored countries across the Americas – from Chile to Canada. The Puerto Rican never mentioned Trump or ICE by name. Not this time – he didn’t need to. Everyone inside Levi’s Stadium read between the lines and unfortunately for the president everyone here enjoyed it. Well, almost everyone.

There was the odd scrap: the Daily Mail witnessed an argument almost bubble over when one aggrieved fan began chanting ‘U-S-A’ and asking, ‘Why are we watching this Mexican s***?’

Someone nearby was quick to point out that both Bad Bunny, and Puerto Rico, are indeed American.

There was the odd silent protest, too. One influencer, Amanda Vance, posted a rather performative clip of herself in the stands, watching the alternative halftime show organized by Turning Point USA and headlined by Kid Rock on her phone.

She wasn’t alone – around the country, millions boycotted Bad Bunny. But Trump, it seems, was not one of them. Down in his Mar-a-Lago resort, as fireworks flew into the skies over Santa Clara, steam came out of the President’s ears.

His verdict on Bad Bunny’s show? ‘Absolutely terrible, one of the worst, EVER,’ Trump wrote on social media. A ‘slap in the face’ to our country,’ he added. ‘[There is] nothing inspirational about this mess of a Halftime Show.’

Inside Levi’s Stadium, though, the cheers grew louder and louder until the show reached its crescendo.

Bad Bunny had admitted a few days out from the Super Bowl that he was gripped by nerves and losing sleep. Who knows if Trump and NFL commissioner Roger Goodell struggled for shut-eye on Saturday night as the world waited to see if – and how – the Puerto Rican might make a scene.

In the end, everyone here lapped it up. Perhaps that should come as no surprise – Seattle, San Francisco and New England are all Democratic strongholds. Given the ongoing unrest in Minnesota and elsewhere around the country, fans here might not have taken kindly to Trump jetting into town. Look how Vice President JD Vance was booed at the Winter Olympics opening ceremony in Italy.

Influencer Amanda Vance claimed on Sunday night, she ‘lost 1k followers in 2 minutes on Instagram because I didn’t watch Bad Bunny’s halftime performance.’

Sports broadcaster and Trump ally Emily Austin, meanwhile, paid tribute to the Puerto Rican. ‘In a culture addicted to outrage, people are desperate to tear each other apart,’ she wrote on social media.

‘Bad Bunny had the biggest stage in the world and could’ve made it political. He didn’t. He chose unity & love. Most of the criticism I’ve seen isn’t even about the music — it’s about his ethnicity. That’s weak.

‘Music and sports are supposed to bring us together. You can celebrate different backgrounds and still love this country. That’s exactly what this Super Bowl performance did.’

No doubt many inside Levi’s Stadium would agree. But it’s a curious turn. Only a few days ago, Austin went viral after ‘sneering’ at Billie Eilish when the singer stood on stage at the Grammy Awards and declared: ‘F*** ICE!’

That night, Bad Bunny denounced ICE, too, when he won a host of awards. Here in Santa Clara, however, he chose to make his point is a rather different way.