{"id":9933,"date":"2026-02-08T12:37:49","date_gmt":"2026-02-08T12:37:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/2026\/02\/08\/is-trump-attending-this-years-super-bowl-heres-what-we-know-usa-today\/"},"modified":"2026-02-08T12:37:49","modified_gmt":"2026-02-08T12:37:49","slug":"is-trump-attending-this-years-super-bowl-heres-what-we-know-usa-today","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/2026\/02\/08\/is-trump-attending-this-years-super-bowl-heres-what-we-know-usa-today\/","title":{"rendered":"Is Trump attending this year\u2019s Super Bowl? Here\u2019s what we know. &#8211; USA Today"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Feb. 8, 2026, 7:02 a.m. ET<\/p>\n<div xmlns:xlink=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/1999\/xlink\">\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/sportsdata.usatoday.com\/football\/nfl\/teams\/new-england-patriots\/348\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" data-t-l=\":b|e|k|\u2691u\">New England Patriots<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/sportsdata.usatoday.com\/football\/nfl\/teams\/seattle-seahawks\/361\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" data-t-l=\":b|e|k|\u2691u\">Seattle Seahawks<\/a> are ready, and Santa Clara, California, is set for <a href=\"http:\/\/www.usatoday.com\/story\/sports\/nfl\/super-bowl\/2026\/01\/28\/how-to-buy-super-bowl-60-tickets-patriots-seahawks\/88396562007\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" data-t-l=\":b|e|k|\u2691u\">Super Bowl 60<\/a>, but one character will be missing.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.usatoday.com\/news\/politics\/donald-trump\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" data-t-l=\":b|e|k|\u2691u\">President Donald Trump<\/a> attended the 2025 Super Bowl in New Orleans between the Kansas City Chiefs and Philadelphia Eagles, but is skipping this year\u2019s game. In an interview with the <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2026\/01\/24\/us-news\/trump-tells-the-post-hes-skipping-the-super-bowl-slams-halftime-performers-bad-bunny-and-green-day\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" data-t-l=\":b|z|k|\u2691u\">New York Post<\/a> in January, Trump said his decision to skip the game was a distance problem.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s just too far away. I would. I\u2019ve (gotten) great hands (at) the Super Bowl. They like me,\u201d Trump told the outlet.<\/p>\n<p>Instead, Trump will sit down for an interview with NBC News&#8217; Tom Llamas on Wednesday, Feb. 4, with a portion of the interview set to air during the network&#8217;s Super Bowl pregame show on Sunday, Feb. 8.<\/p>\n<p>Here is what you need to know.<\/p>\n<figure><img fetchpriority=\"high\" data-g-r=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/www.usatoday.com\/gcdn\/authoring\/authoring-images\/2026\/02\/05\/USAT\/88536005007-20260124-t-162543-z-1890035867-rc-29-rca-8-aj-8-q-rtrmadp-3-usatrumpnfl.JPG?width=660&#038;height=425&#038;fit=crop&#038;format=pjpg&#038;auto=webp\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.usatoday.com\/gcdn\/authoring\/authoring-images\/2026\/02\/05\/USAT\/88536005007-20260124-t-162543-z-1890035867-rc-29-rca-8-aj-8-q-rtrmadp-3-usatrumpnfl.JPG?width=1320&#038;height=850&#038;fit=crop&#038;format=pjpg&#038;auto=webp 2x\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"U.S. President Donald Trump salutes during the national anthem at the Super Bowl in New Orleans, Louisiana, U.S., February 9, 2025.\"><\/figure>\n<h2>Trump and the halftime show<\/h2>\n<p>Despite Trump\u2019s non-attendance at the Super Bowl, the president has loudly criticized this year&#8217;s halftime show performer, Bad Bunny.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Bad Bunny <a href=\"http:\/\/www.usatoday.com\/story\/entertainment\/music\/2026\/02\/01\/bad-bunny-ice-grammy-awards-speech\/88468980007\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" data-t-l=\":b|e|k|\u2691u\">blasted U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement<\/a> during his win for Best Mu\u0301sica Urbana Album at the 68th annual Grammy Awards on Sunday, Feb. 1.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Before I say thanks to God, I&#8217;m going to say, ICE out,&#8221; the Puerto Rican singer said.<\/p>\n<p>A longtime critic of the Trump administration, Bad Bunny faced intense backlash from both the president and conservatives following the announcement of his performance at the Super Bowl.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>In the same interview with the <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2026\/01\/24\/us-news\/trump-tells-the-post-hes-skipping-the-super-bowl-slams-halftime-performers-bad-bunny-and-green-day\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" data-t-l=\":b|z|k|\u2691u\">New York Post<\/a>, Trump called him a \u201cterrible choice\u201d for a halftime show, while conservative group Turning Point USA announced an alternative halftime show featuring Kid Rock and others.<\/p>\n<p>On <a href=\"http:\/\/www.usatoday.com\/story\/sports\/nfl\/super-bowl\/2026\/02\/05\/super-bowl-live-news-updates-patriots-seahawks\/88518308007\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" data-t-l=\":b|e|k|\u2691u\">Thursday, Feb. 5<\/a>, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters that the White House expects Trump to change the channel in the middle of the Super Bowl to watch <a href=\"http:\/\/www.usatoday.com\/story\/entertainment\/music\/2026\/02\/02\/super-bowl-turning-point-usa-alternative-halftime-show-lineup\/88414387007\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" data-t-l=\":b|e|k|\u2691u\">Kid Rock instead of Bad Bunny<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think the president would much prefer a Kid Rock performance over Bad Bunny, I must say that,\u201d Leavitt said.<\/p>\n<p><em>Fernando Cervantes Jr. is a trending news reporter for USA TODAY. Reach him at fernando.cervantes@usatodayco.com and follow him on X @fern_cerv_.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Feb. 8, 2026, 7:02 a.m. ET The New England Patriots and Seattle Seahawks are ready, and Santa Clara, California, is set for Super Bowl 60, but one character will be missing. President Donald Trump attended the 2025 Super Bowl in New Orleans between the Kansas City Chiefs and Philadelphia Eagles, but is skipping this year\u2019s [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9933","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9933","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9933"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9933\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9933"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9933"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9933"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}