Panicking MAGA influencers are plotting ways to game the numbers for Kid Rock’s alternative Super Bowl halftime show, apparently terrified of a ratings rout by the real thing.
The reggaeton superstar Bad Bunny is poised to steamroll Turning Point USA’s “All American Halftime Show” on Sunday, with Google search data showing interest in the official performer running roughly three times higher in the 24 hours before the big game.
MAGA is clearly on edge about Bad Bunny’s massive draw. On Sunday morning, Turning Point USA contributor Jack Posobiec was already floating a rescue plan, coaching the base on what he called “ratings-maxxing.”
“Many people are sayin they plan to have the TPUSA Halftime Show on multiple devices at the same time,” the MAGA influencer posted on X, where he has 3.3 million followers. “It’s called we do a little ratings-maxxing.”
Even President Donald Trump’s base is apparently convinced that organic excitement for its rival halftime show won’t dent Bad Bunny’s ratings. This would amount to a failure of their culture-war boycott of the 31-year-old Puerto Rican singer, an outspoken critic of the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown.
“Holy f— I love that idea,” an X user replied to Posobeic. “I’ll have my PlayStation five watch it. I’ll have my phone watch it. I’ll have my girlfriend’s phone watch it then I’ll have one other smart TV. Watch it. That’ll help.”
Another commented, “Ratings-maxxing is the move. Multiple devices, every screen in the house. The mainstream halftime show is going to get absolutely bodied in the numbers.”
Later, Posobeic, 41, reposted an X post in which a user bragged about pressuring his mother to rally her friends to tune in to the Kid Rock show.
Attaching a screenshot of his pestering messages to his mother, the user wrote, “currently all-caps yelling at my boomer mom in the family groupchat.”
TPUSA announced its alternative show in October, following MAGA backlash to the NFL’s selection of Bad Bunny, a U.S. citizen, as the halftime show headliner. The organization announced Kid Rock as the headlining performer this month.
MAGA vitriol against the Puerto Rican superstar reached new heights last week, when he accepted his Grammy for Album of the Year by saying, “Before I say thanks to God, I’m going to say, ICE out. We’re not savage, we’re not animals, we’re not aliens, we are humans, and we are Americans.”
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters last week that Trump, 79, would “much prefer a Kid Rock performance.” The 55-year-old MAGA singer—a close friend of the president—has come under fire after his creepy comments towards teenage girls resurfaced.
In 2001, a 30-year-old Kid Rock said during a Saturday Night Live performance that he couldn’t understand why men would for the then-14-year-old Olsen twins to turn 18 before pursuing them.
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