Trump will not attend Super Bowl because it's 'too far away,' he tells NY Post

Trump will not attend Super Bowl because it's 'too far away,' he tells NY Post
U.S. President Donald Trump salutes during the national anthem at the Super Bowl in New Orleans, Louisiana, U.S., 9 February, 2025
Reuters

U.S. President Donald Trump has said he will not attend the National Football League’s Super Bowl on 8 February, citing the distance to the venue as the main reason.

The game is set to be played at Levi’s Stadium in northern California, which Trump described as “just too far away” in an interview with the New York Post published on Saturday.

Trump told the newspaper that he would have considered attending if the journey had been “a little bit shorter”. He made history last year by becoming the first sitting U.S. president to attend a Super Bowl, when the 2025 championship was held in New Orleans.

Since then, Trump has appeared at several high-profile sporting events, including last year’s Daytona 500 NASCAR race and this week’s college football national championship. Both were staged in Florida, a relatively short flight from his Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, where he often spends weekends. He also attended golf’s Ryder Cup in September when it was held in Bethpage, New York.

In the same interview, Trump said he was unhappy with the NFL’s choice of entertainment for the championship game, which will include a halftime performance by Puerto Rican rapper Bad Bunny and a pre-game appearance by punk rock band Green Day. The president described the selection of Bad Bunny as “absolutely ridiculous”, a view echoed by many of his supporters, who criticised the Spanish-language artist.

Green Day, meanwhile, are known for songs that criticise the “MAGA agenda”, and lead singer Billie Joe Armstrong has publicly supported protests against the Trump administration’s immigration policies. Despite these objections, Trump insisted that the performers were not a factor in his decision to skip the event.

The NFL, along with representatives for Bad Bunny and Green Day, did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The Super Bowl remains the most-watched annual event in the United States, a position it has held for decades. According to the NFL, last year’s game attracted an average audience of nearly 130 million viewers in the U.S., as well as 62.5 million viewers internationally.

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