Tuesday, September 30, 2025
𝗕𝗥𝗢𝗪𝗡𝗦𝗩𝗜𝗟𝗟𝗘 𝗧𝗥𝗨𝗠𝗣 𝗙𝗔𝗡𝗦; 𝗔𝗥𝗘 𝗬𝗢𝗨 𝗥𝗘𝗔𝗟𝗟𝗬 𝗡𝗢𝗧 𝗔𝗕𝗟𝗘 𝗧𝗢 𝗨𝗡𝗗𝗘𝗥𝗦𝗧𝗔𝗡𝗗 𝗪𝗛𝗬 𝗣𝗨𝗘𝗥𝗧𝗢 𝗥𝗜𝗖𝗔𝗡 𝗘𝗡𝗧𝗘𝗥𝗧𝗔𝗜𝗡𝗘𝗥 𝗕𝗔𝗗 𝗕𝗨𝗡𝗡𝗬 𝗜𝗦 𝗡𝗢𝗧 𝗔 𝗕𝗜𝗚 𝗧𝗥𝗨𝗠𝗣 𝗦𝗨𝗣𝗣𝗢𝗥𝗧𝗘𝗥?
Moments ago, I read a Facebook post of someone stating they will not be watching this year's Super Bowl because Puerto Rican entertainer Bad Bunny is set to perform at halftime. Of course, that person has an absolute right to boycott that football game and to publicly state the reason.
A commentator I'm not familiar with, Benny Johnson, is also of that mindset, describing Bad Bunny as an "anti-ICE activist" and a "massive Trump hater," clearly stating that he, also, will not be watching the Super Bowl February 8, again, clearly his right.
The backlash is part of a larger clash between Trump-aligned conservatives and Puerto Rican cultural and political figures, one that stretches back years to the fallout from Hurricane Maria, when Trump claimed that Puerto Rican officials were exaggerating the death toll and, cavalierly and disrespectfully, tossed paper towels at a relief center. In case you've been living with partisan blinders on the last decade, Donald Trump is not particularly fond of darker-skinned folk, claiming they either eat cats and dogs or falsify death tolls.
When Hurricane Maria devastated Puerto Rico in 2017, Donald Trump’s handling of the crisis left a deep and lasting mark. Nearly 3,000 lives were ultimately lost, yet Trump repeatedly questioned the official death toll, claiming political opponents had inflated the numbers to make him “look as bad as possible.” Instead of uniting the nation in support, as most Presidents do in a crisis, he lashed out at Puerto Rican leaders, including San Juan Mayor Carmen Yulín Cruz, calling her guilty of “poor leadership” and suggesting Puerto Ricans expected “everything to be done for them.” Investigations later found that Trump administration officials deliberately slowed and obstructed the release of Congressionally approved aid, compounding the island’s struggles.
The one moment in particular that came to symbolize Trump’s attitude: during a visit to Puerto Rico, was his casual tossing of paper towel rolls into a crowd of storm victims at the Calvary Chapel in Guaynabo. Many saw the gesture as mocking and profoundly out of touch with the gravity of the suffering around him. Reports that he privately suggested “divesting” from Puerto Rico or even trading the island for Greenland only deepened feelings that he regarded the territory as expendable rather than part of the American family.
Those wounds have not healed. In recent years, Trump’s rhetoric has continued to alienate Puerto Ricans. At a 2024 rally in New York City, a comedian’s joke describing Puerto Rico as a “floating island of garbage” was met with outrage, and Trump was criticized for not condemning the remarks directly. Even as he boasted about providing more aid to Puerto Rico than any president before him, many remembered his earlier dismissive attitude. His decision in early 2025 to make English the official language for all federal business added another layer of unease, with some Puerto Ricans worried about the erosion of their cultural identity. To many, the Republican Party’s removal of language about Puerto Rican self-determination from its platform suggested that the island’s status was being sidelined rather than respected.
In this context, Bad Bunny’s outspoken criticism of Trump resonates with large parts of Puerto Rico’s population, but also ensures he remains a target for Trump’s most loyal supporters. For conservatives, boycotting the Super Bowl over his performance is a symbolic rejection of what they see as anti-Trump, anti-American sentiment. For Puerto Ricans, however, the broader story is about years of feeling dismissed and disparaged by a president who questioned the scale of their tragedy, threw paper towels into a crowd of survivors, and at times suggested they were a burden to be cast aside. The friction over the halftime show, then, is just one visible expression of the deeper divide between Trump’s movement and the island he once considered trading away.
Tuesday, October 14, 2025
𝗠𝗬 𝗕𝗥𝗢𝗧𝗛𝗘𝗥𝗦 𝗔𝗡𝗗 𝗦𝗜𝗦𝗧𝗘𝗥𝗦 𝗜𝗡 𝗠𝗔𝗚𝗔𝗟𝗔𝗡𝗗; 𝗧𝗥𝗬 𝗧𝗢 𝗕𝗘 𝗠𝗢𝗥𝗘 𝗖𝗢𝗠𝗣𝗔𝗦𝗦𝗜𝗢𝗡𝗔𝗧𝗘, 𝗠𝗢𝗥𝗘 𝗨𝗡𝗗𝗘𝗥𝗦𝗧𝗔𝗡𝗗𝗜𝗡𝗚 𝗔𝗡𝗗 𝗜𝗡𝗦𝗜𝗚𝗛𝗧𝗙𝗨𝗟 𝗧𝗛𝗔𝗡 𝗬𝗢𝗨𝗥 𝗙𝗘𝗔𝗥𝗟𝗘𝗦𝗦 𝗟𝗘𝗔𝗗𝗘𝗥
As a 77 year old uncool white guy, I'm not into the music of Puerto Rican recording and performing artist Bad Bunny. Still, I'm not amused by the abject silliness of my MAGA brethren offering resistance to his pending performance at the 2026 Super Bowl.
Boys and girls of Trumpland, Bad Bunny is an American citizen if that's your worry, although I suspect it's not. You're simply reflecting the sentiments of your paper-towel tossing Lord and Savior, Donald J. Trump, a man who totally disrespected part of our country, Puerto Rico, then tried to childishly "trade" it for Greenland.
Put on your independent thinking caps, my MAGA friends, and quit being fooled, duped and tricked by a cult leader while trudging in the footsteps of someone of the ilk of Jim Jones, David Koresh and the Reverend Sun Myung Moon.
Besides, the following non-citizens have already performed at the Super Bowl's halftime show and you never said a damn thing!
- Shakira: Colombia
- Rihanna: Barbados
- The Weeknd: Canada
- Paul McCartney: United Kingdom
- The Rolling Stones: United Kingdom
- U2: Ireland
- Sting: United Kingdom
- Coldplay: United Kingdom
- Shania Twain: Canada
- J. Balvin: Colombia
- The Who: United Kingdom
- Phil Collins: United Kingdom
Monday, October 28, 2024
𝗧𝗥𝗨𝗠𝗣 𝗥𝗔𝗟𝗟𝗬 𝗖𝗢𝗠𝗜𝗖 𝗖𝗔𝗟𝗟𝗦 𝗣𝗨𝗘𝗥𝗧𝗢 𝗥𝗜𝗖𝗢 "𝗔 𝗙𝗟𝗢𝗔𝗧𝗜𝗡𝗚 𝗜𝗦𝗟𝗔𝗡𝗗 𝗢𝗙 𝗚𝗔𝗥𝗕𝗔𝗚𝗘 𝗜𝗡 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗠𝗜𝗗𝗗𝗟𝗘 𝗢𝗙 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗢𝗖𝗘𝗔𝗡"
Donald Trump keeps telling America exactly who he is and the Puerto Rican community in the United States, some 6.2M, is listening.
At a campaign rally in New York's legendary Madison Square Garden, comedian John Hinchcliffe joked about an "island of floating garbage in the middle of the ocean we call Puerto Rico."
Before that racist quip, the Trump rally comedian had this to say: "Latinos love making babies. They do. . . They come inside and there's no pulling out, just like they did to our country."
For those who think Trump himself doesn't view all Hispanics as inferior, don't forget his statement as he rode down the gold escalator in Trump Tower in 2015 to announce his candidacy for President, referring to "Mexican Nationals" as "rapists" and "criminals."
The pushback was swift from noted entertainers in the Hispanic community from Puerto Rico, with Bad Bunny, Jennifer Lopez and Marc Anthony issuing statements condemning the remarks from the Trump rally while endorsing Kamala Harris for President.
What Trump seems not to understand is that residents of Puerto Rico are U.S. citizens, paying taxes to our treasury.
Trump's ignorance and racism was on full display when 2017's Hurricane Maria devasted the island, and U.S. citizens found themselves without food, electricity or clean water while Trump repeatedly blocked aid from being sent to the country.
While the island rocked from the devastating storm, Donald Trump discounted FEMA's death toll figures and publicly fought with San Juan Mayor Carmen Cruz Soto over what support the island needed.
It wasn't until just before the 2020 election that Trump finally released a $13B aid package for the island.
U.S. citizens of Puerto Rico will not forget Trump's suggestion of trading Puerto Rico for Greenland or his cavalier, sarcastic tossing of paper towel rolls at citizens lacking clean water and electricity.
Trump's racist mishandling of the Hurricane Maria recovery, in itself, demonstrates his absolute unfitness to hold public office.
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