President Donald Trump on Saturday said he plans to skip next month's Super Bowl, slamming the halftime performers and griping that the California game is too far away.
Trump, who attended last year’s game between the Philadelphia Eagles and the Kansas City Chiefs in New Orleans, told the New York Post: "It’s just too far away. I would, I’ve [gotten] great hands [at] the Super Bowl. They like me."
This year’s Super Bowl will be held at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, California, near San Jose.
He added, "I would go if, you know, it was a little bit shorter."
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The president has also been openly critical of headline performer Bad Bunny since he was chosen last year to perform at the Halftime Show.
"I don’t know who he is," Trump told Newsmax of the choice last fall. "I don’t know why they’re doing it. It’s crazy. And then they blame it on some promoter they hired to pick up entertainment. I think it’s absolutely ridiculous."
Rock band Green Day was also selected in the last week to play before the kickoff.
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Bad Bunny and Green Day’s frontman Billie Joe Armstrong are both liberal performers who have been vocal about their dislike of Trump in the past.
Bad Bunny said last fall that he decided to do his residency show in his native Puerto Rico and didn't book any U.S. dates on his tour over fears his fans would be detained by ICE agents.
"But there was the issue of, like, f---ing ICE could be outside [my concert]. And it’s something that we were talking about and very concerned about," the Latin pop star, who has a large Latino following, told i-D.
The 31-year-old also featured a person doing a Trump impression in his song "Nuevayol," saying, "I want to apologize to the immigrants in America. . . . This country is nothing without the immigrants. This country is nothing without Mexicans, Dominicans, Puerto Ricans, Colombians, Venezuelans, Cubans."
Armstrong has likened Trump to Hitler in the past and the band frequently changes the line "I’m not part of a redneck agenda" from their 2004 hit "American Idiot" to "I’m not part of the MAGA agenda" in more recent live performances, according to The Independent.
"I’m anti-them," Trump told the Post of the performers. "I think it’s a terrible choice. All it does is sow hatred. Terrible."
Kendrick Lamar headlined last year’s Halftime Show and SZA, Jon Batiste, Lauren Daigle, Trombone Shorty, and Ledisi also performed.
The Super Bowl will take place on Sunday, Feb. 8 with the Seattle Seahawks-Los Angeles Rams and New England Patriots-Denver Broncos championship games Sunday deciding who will play.
