President Donald Trump was advised against attending the Super Bowl because aides were concerned the crowd would “likely aggressively boo him,” according to a report.
Trump was the first sitting president to attend a Super Bowl when he went to New Orleans in 2025, but last week said Sunday’s game at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, California, was “just too far away.”
Super Bowl LX is set to kickoff at 6:30 p.m. Eastern, and features the New England Patriots against the Seattle Seahawks. The president also explained that his absence was due to the performers scheduled during halftime, Bad Bunny and Green Day.
“I’m anti-them,” Trump said. “I think it’s a terrible choice. All it does is sow hatred. Terrible.”
In private, though, several aides and advisers “quietly determined” that there was a high chance of Trump getting booed “big league,” according to Zeteo, citing people briefed on the decision.
Aides were reportedly concerned that if the president was booed, it could produce unwelcome viral social media clips and media coverage.
The White House insisted that Trump would have been well-received if he attended Sunday’s game.
“President Trump is working hard on behalf of the American people,” spokesperson Davis Ingle said. “If he did attend the Super Bowl, he would receive a warm welcome because America knows he has done more to help this country than any other president in history.”
Super Bowl LX is taking place amid the backdrop of mass protests against the Trump administration’s anti-immigration surge in cities across the country. The deaths of American citizens Renee Good and Alex Pretti last month at the hands of federal immigration agents in Minneapolis has inflamed tensions further.
Puerto Rican singer Bad Bunny, born Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio, who is headlining the Super Bowl halftime show, was among stars at the Grammys calling for the end of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the agency that has been carrying out the majority of raids and arrests.
“Before I say thanks to God, I’m going to say ICE out,” he said last Sunday during an acceptance speech for Best Musica Urbana Album. “The only thing that’s more powerful than hate is love,” he said. “So please we need to be different. If we fight, we have to do it with love.”
There were fears that ICE agents would be deployed to the Super Bowl after Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said in September that officers would be “all over” the event following the announcement of Bad Bunny as the headline act.
The NFL’s chief security officer, Cathy Lanier, gave assurances that there are no planned ICE operations at the Super Bowl.
“There are no known, no planned ICE or immigration enforcement operations that are scheduled at the Super Bowl or any of the Super Bowl-related events,” Lanier said Tuesday. “Our Department of Homeland Security, who’s been our partner for more than 20 years now and is made up of more than 20 different departments, will send a variety of different agencies. It does not include ICE.”
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