Super Bowl LX was a real clunker1—say it with us now: FAAAKE MAAAYE!—but at least we got some sizzle from Bad Bunny’s halftime show, which featured Ricky Martin and Lady Gaga, an (apparently actual?) wedding, dancers dressed as bushes and electrical linemen, and an appeal to hemispheric unity featuring the flags of every American country, and a football inscribed with the slogan “Together, We Are America.”

Not everybody was impressed, however. “The Super Bowl Halftime Show is absolutely terrible, one of the worst, EVER!” Donald Trump raged on Truth Social. “It makes no sense, is an affront to the Greatness of America, and doesn’t represent our standards of Success, Creativity, or Excellence.” He went on like that for a while, but you get the idea.

Programming note: No Triad today; back tomorrow. Happy Monday.

Be Like Bad Bunny

by William Kristol

Tbh, the big sports weekend was a bit of a letdown.

Did anyone really watch Super Bowl LX to the end? And when you turned on Winter Olympics XXV, more often than not what you saw was . . . curling!?!

What’s up with that?

Actually, what is up with that? Why is curling an Olympic sport? It’s true that curling was part of the first-ever Winter Olympics in Chamonix, France, in 1924. On the other hand, it was promptly—and, if I might add, understandably—dropped, and only reappeared in the 1998 games three quarters of a century later. (No offense to curlers everywhere, but maybe it’s time for another curling Olympic time out?)

Anyway, last weekend’s sports may not have been super thrilling, but the culture war aspects were entertaining. Bad Bunny’s Spanish-language halftime show led Donald Trump to denounce him. And when some of the American Olympians said a few words distinguishing their love of their country from support for the Trump administration, MAGA-types attacked them (more on this below). Samuel Johnson, call your office: Patriotism has become the first refuge of scoundrels.

Speaking of scoundrels, I’ll note that back here in Washington, D.C., Congress doesn’t seem close to a deal on the 2026 funding legislation for the Department of Homeland Security.

Which is good news. Senate Democrats are actually pretty well positioned for the fight this week. A couple weeks ago, they