The culture wars surrounding America’s biggest sporting event are heating up as Turning Point USA, the conservative advocacy group founded by the late Charlie Kirk, has announced plans to stage its own Super Bowl halftime show in direct competition with the NFL’s official broadcast. The move comes amid a firestorm of controversy over the NFL’s decision to select Puerto Rican superstar Bad Bunny as the headliner for Super Bowl LX’s Apple Music Halftime Show, set for February 8, 2026, at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, California.
Turning Point USA, now led by Erika Kirk following her husband’s tragic death during a public speaking event in September 2025, took to social media to unveil the initiative. Dubbed “The All American Halftime Show: Celebrating Faith, Family & Freedom,” the event is positioned as a patriotic alternative to what some on the right have derided as a divisive main-stage performance. “It’s true, Turning Point USA is thrilled to announce The All American Halftime Show,” the group posted on X, promising that “performers and event details [are] coming soon.” The announcement linked to a dedicated website where fans can sign up for updates and share their preferred musical genres—options include Americana, classic rock, country, hip-hop, pop, worship, and, pointedly, “Anything in English.”
The timing of Turning Point USA’s announcement was no accident. The NFL’s choice of Bad Bunny, who is one of the world’s most popular artists with over 80 million monthly Spotify listeners, has sparked heated debate. While Bad Bunny is an American citizen born in Puerto Rico, he performs almost exclusively in Spanish and is expected to do so during the halftime show. According to HuffPost, the selection has left many conservatives “apoplectic,” with President Donald Trump and his allies among the most vocal critics.
Trump, never one to mince words, told media outlets earlier this month, “I’ve never, I never heard of him. I don’t know who he is. I don’t know why they’re doing it. It’s, like, crazy. Then they blame it on some promoter that they hired to pick up entertainment. I think it’s -- I think it’s absolutely ridiculous.” House Speaker Mike Johnson echoed the sentiment, calling Bad Bunny’s booking “a terrible decision” and suggesting that 82-year-old country singer Lee Greenwood, best known for “God Bless the USA,” would be a better fit for the halftime stage. “Lee Greenwood would attract a broader audience,” Johnson argued, though Greenwood’s 450,000 monthly Spotify listeners pale in comparison to Bad Bunny’s global reach.
The controversy deepened after Bad Bunny’s October 4 appearance on “Saturday Night Live,” where he delivered a message in Spanish and quipped, “If you didn’t understand what I just said, you have four months to learn.” Turning Point USA contributor Jack Posobiec seized on the moment, writing on X, “Seems like a great reason for an alternative halftime show.” Fellow contributor Riley Gaines, a former collegiate swimmer and anti-transgender activist, added, “Bad Bunny told Americans they had 4 months to learn Spanish if we wanted to understand the Super Bowl halftime show. No thanks. We’ll just have our own. Enjoy your low-rated halftime show.”
The backlash has taken on an even sharper edge given Bad Bunny’s outspoken support for immigrants in the United States, especially in the context of recent Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) crackdowns. According to Vanity Fair and The Los Angeles Times, Bad Bunny has publicly criticized the Trump administration’s immigration policies and even omitted U.S. tour stops out of concern for potential ICE raids. In a recent appearance on “The Benny Show,” Corey Lewandowski, chief adviser to Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, warned, “There is nowhere that you can provide safe haven to people who are in this country illegally. Not the Super Bowl, and nowhere else. We will find you. We will apprehend you. We will put you in a detention facility, and we will deport you.” Noem herself ramped up the rhetoric, threatening that ICE would be “all over that place” at Levi’s Stadium on game day, vowing to “enforce the law.”
Turning Point USA’s counterprogramming effort isn’t the first time someone has tried to steal the NFL’s halftime thunder. As The Los Angeles Times points out, the Puppy Bowl, Kitten Bowl, and other lighthearted alternatives have aired before or during the Super Bowl for years. But this latest initiative is different in tone and intent, aiming squarely at the culture war fault lines that have come to define much of American public life.
Details about The All American Halftime Show remain sparse. The website’s survey, which places “Anything in English” at the top of its genre list, has been interpreted by many as a not-so-subtle jab at Bad Bunny’s Spanish-language repertoire. According to Vanity Fair, the survey also includes options like Americana and Worship, reinforcing the show’s branding around traditional values. The event’s organizers have yet to announce any headlining acts, but speculation abounds. Names floated in the media include country superstar Carrie Underwood, who famously sings the NFL’s “Sunday Night Football” theme but may be reluctant to cross the league, and Zach Bryan, a country phenom who recently broke the record for the largest ticketed concert in U.S. history. However, Bryan’s recent lyrics critical of ICE have drawn ire from conservatives like Noem, potentially complicating his candidacy.
Other potential performers, such as Snoop Dogg—who performed at the Super Bowl LVI halftime show in 2022 and at a Trump pre-inauguration ball—have also been mentioned, though his willingness to participate in a conservative-branded event is questionable. Opera singer Christopher Macchio, known as “America’s Tenor” and a favorite of President Trump, has expressed enthusiasm for the idea. In a statement to Vanity Fair, Macchio said, “The President has labeled the selection of ‘Bad bunny’ ‘ridiculous’ and I wholeheartedly agree, as the Super Bowl ought to unify our country through a celebration of shared values and patriotic reverence, not sew division linguistically, and more importantly, through further normalization of anti-Americanism, the occult, and cultural and moral decay.”
As the debate rages, some observers note the logistical and cultural challenges Turning Point USA may face in booking high-profile artists for its counterprogramming event. Past attempts to enlist big names for conservative political events have often met with resistance or controversy. Still, the group appears undeterred, promising a show that will “guarantee the most compelling alternative possible for a global Super Bowl Halftime Show audience hungry for music that ennobles rather than debases our culture and the audiences we serve,” as Macchio put it.
The NFL, Apple Music, and Roc Nation—the entertainment company founded by Jay-Z and involved in the halftime show’s production—have not commented publicly on Turning Point USA’s plans. Nor have representatives for Bad Bunny responded to requests for comment about the conservative backlash or the counterprogramming effort.
With just months to go before Super Bowl LX, the stage is set for a showdown not just on the football field but in the nation’s ongoing cultural tug-of-war. Whether The All American Halftime Show will capture the attention—and ratings—of the American public, or simply underscore the deep divisions over language, identity, and what it means to be “all-American,” remains to be seen.
For now, one thing is certain: the Super Bowl halftime show has become more than just entertainment—it’s a flashpoint in a larger national debate about culture, belonging, and the future of America’s most-watched spectacle.
