Moments of collective unity have become rare in the United States. The country is so deeply divided that even mourning no longer brings people together. This was evident in September 2025, after the assassination of ultra-conservative activist Charlie Kirk, or in January with the deaths of Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis, both killed by agents from the Department of Homeland Security. Everything divides. Only the Super Bowl remains. The NFL championship game is the most-watched event on television. At halftime, on February 8, Puerto Rican superstar Bad Bunny delivered a colorful and joyful musical performance in Spanish, watched by nearly 130 million viewers. Was it greeted with universal acclaim? Not among the nationalist right wing.
US President Donald Trump has often boasted about choosing “80-20” political topics, meaning issues where an overwhelming majority agrees. Yet he launched an attack on Bad Bunny. At a time when the Republican president is losing ground among minorities and 18- to 30-year-olds, Trump opted for an identity-driven stance, politicizing a festive event. Bad Bunny’s celebration of Latino culture, amid controversy over police crackdowns on undocumented migrants, sent a subliminal message. The White House crudely showed it had understood that.
“Nobody understands a word this guy is saying,” Trump wrote about the singer. He called it “an affront to the greatness of America” and “a slap in the face” to the country – a strange claim in a nation with more than 40 million Spanish speakers. This episode marked a shift for the Trump administration as it faced the realities of power. Cruelty has replaced biting humor. Xenophobia now overshadows caricature.
Trump continues to post memes, masculinist cultural references and AI-generated videos on social media. But there is no longer any humor that might entertain those outside the Trumpist cult. The racist video showing former US president Barack Obama and his wife Michelle Obama as apes, shared on Trump’s Truth Social account, exposed the bubble the White House operates in. It also signaled a blatant disregard for the sensitivities of people who do not share the same values or the same narrow vision of a white, Christian America. It took 12 hours for the video to be taken down. In the fast-paced world of the internet, that’s an eternity.
You have 56.4% of this article left to read. The rest is for subscribers only.
