Amid a mixture of booing and cheering, Donald Trump was the first sitting US President to ever attend a Super Bowl last year. But things are about to change in 2026. It’s not a matter of fading interest in the sport, but rather concerns over the logistics surrounding the event that could keep him away. To be more specific, distance is an issue. But so is the fact that Bad Bunny and Green Day will be performing at the event in San Francisco.

“I’m anti-them,” Trump told The New York Post on Friday in an Oval Office interview. “I think it’s a terrible choice. All it does is sow hatred. Terrible.”

This isn’t surprising considering Bad Bunny and Green Day supported Vice President Kamala Harris in 2024. Bad Bunny, who is a famous Puerto Rican rapper, is a vocal critic of Trump and even did a month-long concert residency in Puerto Rico rather than touring the mainland United States. The reason he did this was his fear that his fans would get detained by ICE agents.

Last year, he released ‘Nuevayol,’ a song that included an imitation of Trump’s voice saying, “I want to apologize to the immigrants in America. This country is nothing without the immigrants. This country is nothing without Mexicans, Dominicans, Puerto Ricans, Colombians, Venezuelans, Cubans.”

So, he believes his performance at the Super Bowl will send a message. In fact, in a trailer for his Apple Music Super Bowl LX Halftime Show last week, the rapper promised “the world will dance,” and that “what I’m feeling goes beyond myself.”

On the other hand, Green Day frontman Billie Joe Armstrong also openly shared his disregard for Trump. In the past, he compared Trump to Hitler, and in recent live performances, he changed some lyrics to include, “I’m not part of the MAGA agenda” in the band’s 2004 hit ‘American Idiot‘.

But the criticism hasn’t remained one-sided. In previous interviews, Trump called Bad Bunny “ridiculous” and said that he was unfamiliar with his music.

Bad Bunny will headline the Super Bowl LX halftime show, whereas Green Day is a part of the pregame lineup.

However, the main reason for Donald Trump skipping the Super Bowl is distance.

Donald Trump doesn’t want to take a trip across the country

While his remarks drew attention, Donald Trump also pointed to distance as the deciding factor for not attending the Super Bowl. According to him, the trip across the country simply felt like too much.

“It’s just too far away. I would (have gone otherwise),” he said. “I’ve gotten great hands for the Super Bowl; they like me, I would go if, you know, it was a little bit shorter.”

This year’s Super Bowl will take place on Feb. 8 in Santa Clara, California. Levi’s Stadium will host the event at the home of the Niners in the Bay Area.

However, Trump has not exactly been quiet about football this season, even without attending the league’s biggest night. In fact, the President of the United States has stayed plugged into the league. He openly criticized the NFL’s new kickoff rules that rolled out last season.

“I hate the kickoff in football. I think it’s so terrible, I think it’s so demeaning, I think it hurts the game and hurts the pageantry,” Trump said back in November.

“I’ve told that to Roger Goodell. And I don’t think it’s any safer. I mean, you still have guys crashing into each other. The ball is in the air, and nobody is moving. It’s supposed to be when the ball is in the air; when the ball is played, you’re supposed to be moving. The pageantry of the game is so badly hurt.”

Later on, he even stepped into a Fox broadcast booth during Week 10, adding his voice and presence to the live call. Trump also praised Shedeur Sanders after his first NFL start, and this month, endorsed John Harbaugh to be quickly hired, following his firing by the Ravens.

As for the Super Bowl matchup, it is still wide open. In the AFC, the Patriots and their loyal Pats Nation will clash with the Broncos, backed by Broncos Country. In the NFC, the Rams face the Seahawks, with Rams House and the 12s waiting to see who earns the trip to football’s biggest stage.

NFL commissioner Roger Goodell already responded to the Bad Bunny backlash

In October, many weren’t happy that Bad Bunny was going to perform at the 2026 Super Bowl halftime show. But despite that, Goodell stood his ground.

“It’s carefully thought through,” Goodell mentioned at the NFL’s fall meeting. “I’m not sure we’ve ever selected an artist where we didn’t have some blowback or criticism.

“It’s pretty hard to do when you have literally hundreds of millions of people that are watching.”

He also said that the league was confident about its decision. They have full faith that it will be an amazing show.

The rapper is among the biggest artists in the world, boasting more than 107 billion streams on Spotify and 49.5 million followers on Instagram. He was announced as the Super Bowl halftime show performer back in September, and the appearance will mark his only performance in the continental U.S. in support of his latest album, Debí Tirar Más Fotos.