On Sunday evening, during Bad Bunny’s electrifying halftime performance at Super Bowl LX, a crowd of what appeared to be fewer than 200 people in an undisclosed location were treated to an alternative concert, “The All-American Halftime Show,” presented by the right-wing student organization Turning Point USA.
Conceived as culture-war counterprogramming for a show by a Puerto Rican mega-star who raps and sings in Spanish, and has been a vocal critic of ICE, the event featured four MAGA-aligned country stars and was headlined by Kid Rock, who made his entrance in jorts and trademark fedora. But for all the ideological outrage behind this challenge to globally popular Latin music, TPUSA’s star-spangled jamboree wasn’t particularly message-driven nor even provocative.
It streamed on platforms including Rumble, DailyWire+, and multiple YouTube channels. Blake Neff, producer of The Charlie Kirk Show, claimed there were over 5 million live viewers on the Turning Point USA YouTube stream; as of publication time, it been viewed over 16 million times. Shortly before going live, TPUSA announced that it would not be able to air the special on X due to “licensing issues.”
Super Bowl LX, meanwhile, was expected to draw as many as 130 million viewers.
Though largely framed as a memorial to Charlie Kirk, the TPUSA founder killed in September during a campus talk, “The All-American Halftime Show” included no appearance by his widow, Erika Kirk, who has been on an extended media tour since her husband’s death. President Trump did not comment directly on the concert, choosing instead to rant about Bad Bunny’s performance.
“The Super Bowl Halftime Show is absolutely terrible, one of the worst, EVER!” Trump wrote on his digital platform, Truth Social. “It makes no sense, is an affront to the Greatness of America, and doesn’t represent our standards of Success, Creativity, or Excellence. Nobody understands a word this guy is saying, and the dancing is disgusting, especially for young children that are watching from throughout the U.S.A., and all over the World.” These comments came amid renewed scrutiny of Trump’s relationship with the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
The Democratic party’s official X account screenshotted Trump’s post about Bad Bunny, observing: “Guess he wasn’t watching Kid Rock then.”
The livestream of the TPUSA event was preceded by a message from defense secretary Pete Hegseth, who said that the so-called Department of War was “proud to support” it. Viewers were also directed to a phone number they could call to “start or join a Turning Point USA chapter.” Comments on the stream were filled with remarks such as “Protect kids,” “No NFL on screen,” “GOD BLESS AMERICA,” and “JESUS.”
Country singer Brantley Gilbert kicked off the concert, heavy on pyrotechnic visual effects throughout, rapping into a microphone with brass knuckles on it and performing the hit “Dirt Road Anthem,” which he cowrote but was originally made famous by Jason Aldean in 2010. It features the line “Better watch out for the boys in blue,” a reference to trouble with police. The crowd, some wearing MAGA hats, then swayed to a couple of tunes by Gabby Barrett, who won the 2021 female artist of the year award at the Academy of Country Music Awards.
Next came Lee Brice, who shouted out Kirk directly. “Charlie, he gave people microphones so they could say what was on their minds,” he declared before launching into a premiere performance of a new song called “Country Nowadays.” The lyrics included an allusion to gender politics. “I turn the TV on and sit and watch the evening news / Be told if I tell my own daughter that little boys ain’t little girls / I’d be up the creek in hot water,” he sang. The chorus noted: “It ain’t easy being country in this country nowadays.”
Kid Rock, 55, galvanized the audience as he poorly lip-synched to his raucous 1999 single “Bawitdaba,” which was followed by a treacly instrumental by a string duet. Afterward, Rock returned to the stage under his actual name, Robert Ritchie, with a cover of the mournful 2021 Cody Johnson song “‘Til You Can’t,” to which he added an extra verse about the Bible and Jesus Christ.
The livestream concluded with more footage and recorded comments from Charlie Kirk, and a postscript stating that it was produced in “loving memory” of the TPUSA founder and CEO.
“The All-American Halftime Show” was hyped in advance by Trump administration figures including health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who filmed an ad for the event with Kid Rock, and on Sunday night, conservative pundits like Matt Walsh and Megyn Kelly touted it as a massive victory for conservatives. But Trump and other influencers preferred to simply attack Bad Bunny. “Illegal aliens and Latin hookers twerking at the Super Bowl,” Trump ally Laura Loomer posted on X. “This isn’t White enough for me.”
At least one Super Bowl attendee, the professional sports gambler Amanda Vance (who has no apparent relationship to Vice President JD Vance), uploaded a video of herself watching the TPUSA show on her phone while Bad Bunny performed on the field at Levi’s Stadium below her. “Watching the American halftime performance at the Super Bowl instead of Bad Bunny,” she captioned the clip on X. Vance received a number of mocking replies about how far back she was seated in the stadium.
After the show, Kid Rock’s X account announced that his studio recording of “‘Til You Can’t” would be available to stream or purchase at midnight, offering thanks to the original songwriters “for giving me there [sic] blessing to record and release it.”
The musician’s lean into MAGA politics in recent years has delivered mixed results. An upcoming multiday concert he was to headline in South Carolina was canceled this month as other bands dropped out of what figured to be an extremely politicized event. The run-up to the TPUSA halftime show also collided with the release of millions of documents pertaining to criminal investigations of Epstein, a coincidence that led to the resurfacing of his lyrics about having sex with underage girls in the 2001 song “Cool, Daddy Cool.”
“Young ladies, young ladies,” Ritchie sings on the track. “I like ‘em underage, see / Some say that’s statutory / But I say it’s mandatory.”
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