Several prominent MAGA influencers and media personalities fell for an obviously fake flyer promoting the lineup of the “All-American” Super Bowl halftime show that right-wing organization Turning Point USA has promised to host as an alternative to Bad Bunny’s performance at the big game.
The fabricated poster, which was peddled on social media and in far-right message boards, featured a lineup of pro-Trump musical acts such as Kid Rock, John Rich, Ted Nugent and others – as well as a special guest appearance by “Measles.”
TPUSA – the MAGA youth group co-founded by the late conservative activist Charlie Kirk – revealed last week that it was organizing its own event to compete with the upcoming Super Bowl’s halftime festivities amid conservative rage over Bad Bunny being the featured performer, noting that “performers and even details” would soon follow.
With right-wing media and Republican politicians blasting the selection of the Puerto Rican rapper to headline the halftime show, due mainly to his Spanish-language lyrics and anti-ICE stance, speculation soon began to arise over who TPUSA would tap to take its stage.
While some conservative pundits went so far as to claim that Bad Bunny is not American, seemingly forgetting that Puerto Rico is a U.S. territory, House Speaker Mike Johnson insisted that the “King of Latin Trap” was a “terrible” pick and “not someone who appeals to a broader audience.” Instead, according to the GOP leader, 82-year-old Lee Greenwood – of “God Bless the USA” fame – would have been a better choice for “young and impressionable children” watching the game.
Donald Trump has even weighed in, claiming that “a lot of folks don’t even know who he is,” despite the 100+ million records Bad Bunny has sold. “I don’t know why they’re doing it, it’s like, crazy,” Trump grumbled last week on Newsmax. “Then they blame it on some promoter that they hired to pick up entertainment. I think it’s absolutely ridiculous.”
With online chatter among conservatives reaching a fever pitch over which artists should perform at the TPUSA halftime show, and AI slop already dominating much of that conversation, it was really just a matter of time before a fake lineup made the rounds. And this weekend, that is exactly what happened.
“WOW: It’s official. It’s happening,” John Strand, a conservative pundit and self-described “J6 political prisoner vindicated by the Supreme Court,” tweeted on Sunday. “@TPUSA is launching the first-ever American Patriot Super Bowl Halftime Show. This is how we win. This is how we take our country back.”
Strand also shared an image of a poster supposedly released by Turning Point USA announcing that Kid Rock, the Trump-boosting country-rapper who kick-started the anti-trans Bud Light boycott two years ago, would be headlining a show chock-full of the leading lights in MAGA entertainment.
Supposedly appearing alongside Rock would be hard rock guitarist Ted Nugent, who once urged Hillary Clinton to ride one of his machine guns “into the sunset,” Greenwood, “Try That in a Small Town” singer Jason Aldean, Fox News favorite John Rich, and MAGA rapper Forgiato Blow – whose name was misspelled.
Blow, meanwhile, recently recorded a pro-lynching song in the wake of Kirk’s murder, calling for “a big tall tree and a short piece of rope” to “hang ‘em up high at sundown” and “leave ‘em swinging so the folks all know you don’t mess around in our town.” The white rap artist also threw out the n-word throughout the tune.
Besides the coterie of conservative musicians, the poster also promoted a “guest appearance” by “Measles,” which appears to be a reference to the anti-vaccine movement led by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Trump’s health secretary. Amid Kennedy’s continued hostility towards vaccines, which has included him undermining research and firing top health officials, the United States has seen cases of measles – once eradicated in the country – rise across the nation.
As was the case earlier this summer with an AI-generated Melania Trump Vanity Fair cover, Trump supporters quickly embraced the purported TPUSA concert lineup as real. Patriots.win, the far-right online forum that was created as a successor to the conspiratorial subreddit The_Donald, immediately celebrated the upcoming show.
“This is how you do it. Beat them at their own game,” one forum member wrote, while another stated: “I’m still not watching the stupidbowl, I may tune into this though.”
As The Bulwark’s Will Sommer noted, an “unreal number of MAGA influencers” fell for the flyer, including one-time Alex Jones cohort Owen Shroyer, who noted how impressive it was that the conservative organization had packed in so much talent for the tight timeframe.
“TPUSA announces their alternate halftime show, featuring nine musicians for a 20 minute show window,” Shroyer posted on X. “Not sure how thats going to work but it will definitely be better than the Super Bowl Halftime Show.”
Right-wing provocateur Graham Allen also shared the flyer, claiming in a since-deleted all-caps tweet that “THIS WILL BE THE GREATEST HALF TIME SHOW EVER” and “100% BEATS BAD BUNNY!!!”
In fact, some media outlets also seemed to take the fabricated poster at face value. Entertainment site Mandatory, for instance, cited Strand’s tweet to report that Kid Rock was “rumored to headline” the TPUSA event, adding that it was “interesting” that Rock “had not confirmed his participation in The All American Halftime Show.”
Eventually, with Strand’s tweet garnering 1.4 million views and tens of thousands of reposts and likes, he began walking back the claims that the lineup was set – especially after longtime TPUSA contributor Jack Posobiec noted that no artists had been announced for the halftime show yet.
Even though the poster ended up being a fake and “Measles” isn’t going to share the stage with “Forgigato Blow,” Strand said it was all worth it because the libs were supposedly owned.
“As @JackPosobiec stated today, the lineup pictured below is not official or confirmed…but the Turning Point Super Bowl Halftime Show most certainly is,” the MAGA personality wrote. “And judging by the explosive response to my tweet from deranged lefty’s… This show is going to be BIBLICAL!”
