White House Sends Karoline Leavitt to the Super Bowl After Bad Bunny Attack, Trump’s Absence Comes With One Unanswered Question
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt,traveled to California for Super Bowl LX to cheer on her hometown New England Patriots while Donald Trump chose to stay behind.
The 28-year-old, the youngest press secretary in U.S. history, marked her arrival with an Instagram mirror selfie, posing in a fitted burgundy dress and cradling her pregnant belly as she signaled she was headed west for Super Bowl weekend.
Her caption read, “Super Bowl Eve! San Francisco, California.”
The reaction online was swift and hostile. Critics questioned why Leavitt was even in San Francisco, pointing to her repeated attacks on the halftime show and Democratic-led states. “San Francisco is NOT PLEASED! Why is she here? She’s done nothing but bash the halftime show performance choice, and she doesn’t approve of Blue State policy. Stay home!!” one person wrote.
Others piled on, calling her a “hypocrite, just like Trump.” Another person said, “
Trump was advised not to go because he will be booed loudly. Why isn’t he going to TP USA halftime show to support lol?”
That backlash comes just days after Leavitt, acting as Trump’s chief spokesperson, went after Bad Bunny ahead of his highly anticipated Super Bowl halftime performance. The Grammy-winning artist sparked controversy earlier this month when he used his acceptance speech for Best Música Urbana Album to denounce U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
“Before I say thanks to God, I’m gonna say, ICE out!” Bad Bunny told the audience, which responded by giving him a standing ovation. “We’re not savages, we’re not animals, we’re not aliens, we are humans, and we are Americans.” He gave a great portion of his acceptance speeches in Spanish.
But his “ICE out” remarks were similar to the rallying cry of anti-ICE activists in Minneapolis, Los Angeles, and other cities that Trump, 79, has occupied with federal law enforcement agents over the last year.
Other Grammy attendees expressed their frustrations with Trump and ICE by wearing “ICE Out” pins at the ceremony held inside the Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles. Stars such as Billie Eilish, Justin Bieber, and Kehlani took a stand against the administration’s controversial tactics.
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Leavitt did not hold back when hit with a question about Bad Bunny embracing the “ICE Out” movement at the Grammys.
Leavitt, 28, immediately went on the offense against Trump’s critics while addressing reporters during an outside gaggle on the White House grounds held on Feb. 3.
“I think it’s very ironic and frankly sad to see celebrities who live in gated communities with private security, with millions of dollars to spend protecting themselves, trying to just demonize, again, law enforcement, public servants who work for the United States government to enforce our nation’s laws,” Leavitt stated.
Leavitt’s attempt to shame Bad Bunny and his well-to-do peers for being supposedly out of touch fell flat with many social media commenters. The fact that she is currently pregnant with a second child by a much older and wealthy real estate developer and works for an extremely wealthy real estate mogul did not go unnoticed.
Trump, who lives part-time in his private Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, reportedly has an estimated net worth of $6.5 billion. Leavitt is married to 60-year-old Nicholas Riccio, who built his multi-million-dollar fortune by investing in high-end rental properties in New Hampshire.
“I think it’s hilarious to hear billionaires and their mouthpieces at the White House telling working people what’s ‘sad.’ ICE isn’t law enforcement, no matter how many times they insist [on] it,” one person on X exclaimed.
A second individual wondered about Leavitt’s own living situation by inquiring, “Doesn’t she live in a gated community?” The Trump team was also mocked when someone asked, “They are just now discovering that Bad Bunny is filthy rich?”
“I think it’s sad that your a– [is] bragging about getting pregnant by someone’s great grandpa… your baby daddy was alive when ‘The Flintstones’ debuted… go sit your dumba– down, Karoline,” read a tweet directed at Leavitt.
The jabs were brutal as some painted Leavitt as an evil cartoon villain by tweeting, “Be interesting to know what the security’s like at her lair.” Ethnicity was also subtly brought up when a poster suggested, “We all know why they dislike Bad Bunny.”
A large number of Trump’s MAGA supporters already viewed Bad Bunny as a political adversary after the NFL announced in 2025 that the Spanish-speaking hitmaker would headline the Super Bowl LX halftime show. Conservatives plan to counterprogram the mid-game performance on Feb. 8 with a Turning Points USA-promoted concert featuring right-wing singer Kid Rock.
Trump shared his own thoughts last October on Bad Bunny being chosen to entertain the crowd at this year’s Super Bowl LX, telling NewsMax host Greg Kelly, “I never heard of him. I don’t know who he is. I don’t know why they’re doing it. It’s crazy. And then they blame it on some promoter that they hired to pick up entertainment. I think it’s absolutely ridiculous.”
While millions of people across the globe will tune in to see what Bad Bunny has in store for the televised audience on Super Bowl Sunday, the president has insisted he will not be watching Bunny’s halftime show or rock band Green Day’s opening ceremony set.
“I’m anti-them. I think it’s a terrible choice. All it does is sow hatred. Terrible,” Trump said in a January interview with the New York Post. The president revealed he will not attend Super Bowl LX in Santa Clara, California, claiming the championship game is “too far away.”
But one big question remains unanswered amid the spectacle: Is Trump skipping the game because of distance and politics or because he’s worried about the reaction he might get from a crowd tuning in to Bad Bunny’s historic performance?
