Every February, the Super Bowl becomes more than a game. It’s a uniquely American spectacle — the moment when the world watches what we celebrate, what we believe, and who we are. The halftime show is not filler. It’s a centerpiece of that narrative, an opportunity to showcase unity, pride, and national identity.
That’s why the NFL’s decision to give this year’s stage to Bad Bunny is a disgrace. He isn’t just a pop star. He’s an artist who has vilified U.S. border enforcement and openly smeared ICE. Handing him the most symbolic stage in American culture doesn’t just miss the mark. It betrays the very values the Super Bowl is supposed to represent.
This isn’t a minor misstep. It’s a deliberate statement. Put an anti-ICE performer on America’s biggest cultural stage, and you endorse his hostility.
This isn’t about musical taste. It’s about message. In interviews, Bad Bunny admitted he skipped U.S. tour dates because he feared “f**king ICE could be outside [my concert].” He has filmed himself blasting ICE raids in Puerto Rico, cursing agents for doing their jobs. That isn’t subtle criticism of policy. That’s contempt for American law and the people sworn to enforce it.
And when the NFL hands him the halftime show, the league tells the world that contempt is acceptable — even worthy of reward. The institution that sells itself as America’s game is now propping up someone who spits on American institutions.
We don’t expect the halftime show to deliver a sermon. But we should expect performers who respect the country giving them the stage. Past acts at least tried. Bruce Springsteen gave us working-class grit. U2 turned a song into a national act of mourning after 9/11. Tom Petty, Paul McCartney, and the Rolling Stones bridged generations with rock. Even pop stars like Beyoncé, Garth Brooks, and Shania Twain managed to balance identity with national pride.
What they all shared was basic respect: They performed for Americans without tearing down the place that gave them that platform. The NFL’s choice this year shreds that tradition. It rewards an artist whose hostility to ICE has been central to his public image. It signals to others that the way to get the halftime show is to insult the country that made the stage matter in the first place.
And the excuse? “Global appeal.” But football doesn’t need imported validation. The NFL is already global because football is ours — our game, our culture, our spirit. We don’t sell the Super Bowl by erasing what makes America unique. We sell it by putting American values — freedom, family, and faith — at the forefront.
If the NFL truly wanted broad appeal without controversy, the choices are obvious. Carrie Underwood could unify audiences across generations. Luke Combs or Chris Stapleton bring authenticity and humility. Bon Jovi, the Eagles, or Kenny Chesney can fill stadiums with American anthems. None of them tear down American law enforcement. None of them spark culture wars just by stepping on stage.
So my family will boycott the halftime show. We’ll refill our plates, toss a football in the yard, and talk about the game. Because we won’t sit quietly while the NFL hands America’s stage to someone who openly derides American sovereignty and law.
This isn’t a minor misstep. It’s a deliberate statement. Put an anti-ICE performer on America’s biggest cultural stage, and you endorse his hostility. The world will be watching. We can show them unity, strength, and pride. Or we can hand them a spectacle that undermines it.
We choose. My family has chosen. I hope many others will too.
About a month ago, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem held a press conference to announce that about “1.6 million illegal immigrants have left the United States population.”
That’s a fraction of the number of people who arrived in the years that the Biden administration essentially opened the border. But it’s a lot of people, and it engendered much eye-rolling among journalists who compared Noem’s claim to Attorney General Pam Bondi’s declaration that President Trump’s drug interdiction policies had saved 258 million lives, roughly 75% of the U.S. total population.
The foreign-born population in the US declined from 53.3 million at the beginning of the year to 51.9 million by the end of June — a decline of 1.4 million in just six months.
However, in the weeks since Noem’s announcement, several data points have since emerged that suggest her estimate may be reasonably accurate. It might even be too low.
In August, the Pew Research Center estimated that the U.S. foreign-born population dropped from 53.3 million at the beginning of the year to 51.9 million by the end of June — a decline of 1.4 million in just six months. The Pew report noted that the January count of 53.3 million was “the largest number ever recorded” and that the decline this year will be the first decline in the immigrant population since the 1960s.
About the same time, the Center for Immigration Studies estimated that the foreign-born population fell by 2.2 million in the first seven months of the year. The center estimates that 1.6 million of those who left were in the country illegally. If this estimate is correct, it would indicate that about 600,000 immigrants left, despite having the option legally to stay.
The center’s report indicates that it relied in part on data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, which tracks the number of foreign-born workers. The bureau’s data shows that the number of foreign-born workers peaked in March at 32.2 million, before falling to 30.8 million by August — a decline of 1.4 million. Even so, the level remains historically high, and numbers appeared to stabilize in late summer.
Last week, the Congressional Budget Office updated its demographic projections, based on changes in immigration patterns and enforcement since the beginning of the year. It lowered its projection for the population in 2055 from 372 million to 367 million. The current population is about 350 million, so their projection suggests that the U.S. will add only 17 million new residents over the next 30 years. That will be the slowest population growth in the country’s history.
The Congressional Budget Office also projects that natural population growth (births minus deaths) will turn negative in 2031. At that point, any population growth will be almost entirely dependent on incoming immigrants. (Longer life spans play a minor role in such projections.) The office’s numbers still assume growth from immigration this year and in subsequent years. That certainly seems unlikely, at least for this year, given all the preliminary data showing that many immigrants have already left the country.
If the U.S. population declines this year, it will be only the second time in the nation’s history. The only other time was in 2021, at the height of the COVID pandemic.
There will be those who decry a lower population trajectory as a calamity and others who celebrate it as a blessing. But the truth is that we are in uncharted territory. Classical economic theory holds that the change in economic activity is the sum of the changes in population and productivity, implying that a population decline will lead to economic contraction.
However, many argue that there are conditions today that distort the classical theory. These include the negative impacts of a dysfunctional immigration system, declines in the proclivity of immigrants to assimilate, and a potential massive increase in productivity driven by technology, especially AI.
In other words, all these opinions about the advantages or disadvantages of slower population growth, or perhaps even a population that is declining, are nothing but speculation at this point. For 250 years, companies, institutions, governments, policymakers, and investors have been basing decisions on the assumption that our population will continue to grow each year. At a minimum, this new trajectory will require a major reset of those long-standing assumptions.
Editor’s note: This article was originally published by RealClearPolitics and made available via RealClearWire.
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