Benito Ocasio, better known as his stage name Bad Bunny, has challenged English dominance in music over the past few years. The streaming era has allowed the Puerto Rican artist to bypass traditional gatekeepers and he recently became Spotify’s most streamed artist globally for the fourth time in his career.

He also made history at the 2026 Grammy Awards, becoming the first artist to win album of the year for a record sung entirely in Spanish, DeBÍ TiRAR MáS FOToS.

Yet his selection to perform at this year’s Super Bowl halftime show has sparked controversy and backlash from President Donald Trump’s administration and its supporters in the United States.

The U.S. has a long history of excluding Latinos from its sense of national identity. In this current era of MAGA politics, Bad Bunny is exposing the many ways the American conservative right has narrowed its ideas about who truly “belongs” in America.

Borders have been central to MAGA politics, most clearly demonstrated by Trump’s hardline stance on immigration. So too has the subject of who can count themselves as part of “the people” — not simply who we agree with, but who is seen as deserving protection and belonging.

In MAGA’s political logic, citizenship status is only one factor of this. Race, language, sexual orientation, gender identity and political leanings have all emerged as markers of belonging or exclusion.

Conservative commentator Tomi Lahren’s insistence that Bad Bunny is “not an American artist,” U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem’s threats to have ICE present at the halftime show and one Fox News host’s........

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