Poll Surprise: Bad Bunny Comes Out Ahead of Trump When U.S. Adults Are Asked, ‘Who Better Represents America?’

A new Yahoo!/YouGov poll shows more Americans approving of Bad Bunny than of his recent nemesis-in-chief, Donald J. Trump, in the wake of controversy over last weekend’s Super Bowl halftime show, by a margin of 42% for the Puerto Rican performer versus 39% for the president.

More than 1,700 U.S. adults were surveyed for the poll, with a slightly higher percentage of Republicans and conservatives included in the survey than their Democratic/liberal counterparts.

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On the question “Who better represents America?,” the split between 42% for Bad Bunny versus 39% for Trump had the performer ahead by three points — and left 20% who answered “not sure,” making it a closer call between those two than it was in the lopsided contest between the Seahawks and Patriots.

Asked for their overall opinion of Bad Bunny, 43% of those polled said they had a favorable take on the artist, while 36% said it was unfavorable.

There was a similar result when those surveyed were asked whether they approved or disapproved of Bad Bunny as the halftime pick. The yay vote was 44%, while 35% disapproved of the NFL’s choice.

When asked whether they watched the halftime performance, 47% of respondents said they did, and 53% said they did not. (51% said they watched the Super Bowl overall, suggesting that there were 4% of U.S. adults who watched the game itself but tuned out Bad Bunny.)

When it came to those who did indeed watch Bad Bunny at halftime, the results skewed heavily toward the favorable.

On the question “Did you like or dislike Bad Bunny’s halftime performance?,” 30% of all Americans surveyed said they “liked” it, while only 8% said they “disliked” the halftime show. Another 8% who viewed it neither liked nor disliked it. (The remaining 53% of those surveyed indicated they had not tuned in.)

Bad Bunny not performing in English? Not a problem for the majority of the 47% of U.S. adults who did watch the halftime show. The poll showed that 31% of those who watched approved of him performing entirely in Spanish, while only 11% disapproved. (Another 5% weren’t sure one way or the other; again, the question was not asked of the 53% who didn’t tune in.)

Bad Bunny’s final burst of messaging got a high approval rating from viewers. Those polled were asked what they thought of the artist ending his performance by saying “God bless America” while naming all the countries in North, South and Central America, backed by a billboard that read “The only thing more powerful than hate is love.” This was asked of all respondents — halftime viewers and non-viewers alike — and a whopping 60% approved of the message, while only 16% said they disapproved. (24% were unsure.)

As for who was surveyed, there were more Republicans than Democrats participating in the poll. Respondents identified as 33% Republican, 31% Democrat and 28% independent. By ideology, 33% identified as conservative, 28% as liberal and 31% as moderate. Racially, whites dominated the sample at 63%, followed by Hispanics at 16% and Blacks at 13%.

The polarized response to the Super Bowl halftime show was heightened by the president signaling his strong distaste for Bad Bunny both before and after the game. Trump tore into the Feb. 8 halftime show as “a slap in the face to the U.S. and “an affront to the Greatness of America.” He wrote on Truth Social, “Nobody understands a word this guy is saying,” while adding that the dancing was “disgusting.”

Some Republican strategists have suggested that Trump is making an unforced error by going after as popular a performer as Bad Bunny, and slamming the idea of performing in Spanish, particularly when some crucial House races will be happening this fall in districts with large contingents of Latino voters.

“It’s going to do us more damage than good,” Vianca Rodriguez told Reuters this week. Rodriguez, an ex-Trump administration official who served as deputy Hispanic communications director for the RNC during the last presidential race, added, “That shouldn’t have been a battle to have been picked culturally.”

When the Yahoo!/YouGov poll results were broken down by race, Bad Bunny came in behind on some of the key questions among white respondents. When white respondents were asked about their general opinion of the performer, Bad Bunny was slightly underwater, with 39% of whites generally approving of Bad Bunny, while 41% disapprove. But he has a 57% approval rating among all Blacks, versus only 11% disapproval. Among Hispanics, 51% gave Bad Bunny their approval in the poll, while 36% disapprove.

On the question “Who better represents America?,” Bad Bunny lagged further behind among white respondents, with 48% saying Trump, while 37% said Bad Bunny. But the musician came out far ahead with Blacks, who picked Bad Bunny as the better representative of America at 61%, over just 9% going with Trump. Among Hispanics, it was tighter, but still heavily tilted toward the artist; 46% said Bad Bunny better represents America, versus 32% saying Trump.

Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl halftime show reached an average of 128.2 million viewers, according to Nielsen. That is easily one of the top marks for any halftime performance in the history of the game, although behind the all-time record of 133.5 million achieved last year by Kendrick Lamar’s performance. The ratings smash came despite millions of potential viewers being siphoned off by a pre-taped Turning Point USA show headlined by Kid Rock that was heavily touted as a conservative alternative to the NFL’s broadcast.

The Yahoo!/YouGov poll was conducted among 1,704 adults on Feb. 9-12, with a three-point margin of error.