President Donald Trump announced Saturday that he will not attend the upcoming Super Bowl in California, citing the distance to the West Coast venue and expressing dissatisfaction with the league’s choice of halftime entertainment.
The president, who attended last year’s championship game between the Philadelphia Eagles and the Kansas City Chiefs in New Orleans, indicated that the February matchup at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara presents logistical challenges he is unwilling to accommodate at this time.
“It’s just too far away,” the president stated. “I would go if it was a little bit shorter.”
This year’s Super Bowl location in the San Francisco Bay Area places the event approximately 2,800 miles from Washington. The president noted that he has historically been well-received at previous Super Bowl appearances.
Beyond geographical considerations, President Trump has voiced strong objections to the National Football League’s selection of performers for the game’s entertainment programming. The league has tapped Latin music artist Bad Bunny for the halftime show and rock band Green Day for the pre-game performance.
The president previously expressed bewilderment at Bad Bunny’s selection, questioning the choice when it was announced last year. Both Bad Bunny and Green Day frontman Billie Joe Armstrong have been publicly critical of the Trump administration in recent years.
Bad Bunny, whose legal name is Benito Antonio MartÃnez Ocasio, recently conducted a residency tour exclusively in his native Puerto Rico, deliberately avoiding scheduling performances on the U.S. mainland. The artist cited concerns about immigration enforcement activities potentially affecting his concert attendees as a factor in that decision.
The president’s absence from this year’s Super Bowl marks a departure from last year, when he made a prominent appearance at the championship game. His attendance then was viewed as part of a broader engagement with major American sporting events.
The announcement comes as former NFL sideline reporter Michele Tafoya pursues a Minnesota Senate seat, adding another dimension to ongoing discussions about the intersection of sports, entertainment, and politics in American public life.
Meanwhile, South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem has criticized the NFL’s recent decisions and indicated that Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents will maintain a presence at the Super Bowl, underscoring the administration’s commitment to immigration enforcement regardless of the event’s high-profile nature.
The Super Bowl remains one of the most-watched television events in America annually, drawing audiences exceeding 100 million viewers. The president’s decision not to attend represents a notable absence from an event that traditionally serves as a unifying moment in American culture, though his reasoning reflects both practical considerations and principled disagreements with the league’s choices.
The NFL has not publicly responded to the president’s announcement regarding his non-attendance.
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