A single line posted by the Obama Foundation ahead of the Super Bowl reverberated far beyond music fandom, drawing renewed attention to questions of citizenship, identity and America's long-running culture wars. The message, addressed to Puerto Rican superstar Bad Bunny, read: "From one natural-born US citizen to another, have a great Benito Bowl!"
The post, shared on X alongside a short montage of Bad Bunny tracks featured on Barack Obama's annual playlists, appeared at first glance to be a lighthearted show of support. The phrase "natural-born US citizen," however, quickly stood out to political observers familiar with the conspiracy theories that once dogged Obama's presidency.
For years, Donald Trump publicly questioned whether Obama was born in the United States, promoting the so-called "birther" conspiracy despite official documentation from Hawaii confirming Obama's birth in Honolulu. The episode became a defining feature of Trump's rise in national politics and a symbol of how questions of legitimacy could be weaponized.
The Obama Foundation's phrasing also landed amid a broader online backlash to Bad Bunny's selection as the 2026 Super Bowl halftime headliner. Some right-wing commentators complained about a Spanish-language performer on the NFL's biggest stage, with others incorrectly asserting that Puerto Ricans are not American citizens, despite their U.S. citizenship dating back to 1917.
Bad Bunny's halftime performance leaned directly into those tensions. The 31-year-old artist transformed the stage into a stylized Puerto Rican streetscape, complete with power lines, plena musicians and predominantly Spanish-language lyrics. Midway through the show, he looked into the camera and said, "God bless America," before hoisting a football emblazoned with the phrase "Together we are America" and spiking it as the crowd erupted.
The imagery underscored Puerto Rico's complex status as a U.S. territory with its own distinct culture and limited federal voting rights. The juxtaposition of U.S. and Puerto Rican flags on screen conveyed a vision of national identity that is multilingual and layered, rather than singular.
Against that backdrop, the Obama Foundation's "natural-born" remark was widely interpreted as deliberate rather than accidental. A former president whose citizenship was once challenged appeared to be publicly aligning himself with an artist whose Americanness was also being questioned in online discourse.
Trump reacted sharply. Posting on Truth Social, he called the halftime show "absolutely terrible, one of the worst, EVER," and described it as "an affront to the Greatness of America" that failed to meet "our standards of Success, Creativity or Excellence." He added that "nobody understands a word this guy is saying" and criticized the performance as "disgusting, especially for young children that are watching from throughout the U.S.A., and all over the World."
The criticism drew further attention when reports circulated that Trump had screened the same performance at a private Super Bowl watch party, prompting accusations of hypocrisy from critics who said the episode illustrated how political figures both condemn and consume the celebrity culture they decry.
