Trump's meltdown over Bad Bunny is really about this -->

“Bad Bunny is a symbol of cultural diversity,” Zirin, the sports and politics journalist, told me. “If the NFL, many of whose owners bankroll Trump, see Bad Bunny as good for business, that’s very bad for the regime.”

“[Trump’s] underlying project of mass deportations in service of ethnonationalist renewal faces widespread public condemnation. The old tried-and-true cultural barbs have lost their potency. Much of the energy is on the other side. Whether Trump knows it or not, he’s losing this war very badly.”

"They're going to post ICE at the polls!" Dude they're not even going to post them at the Super Bowl.

Those MAGA that are sentient (20%? 30%? -- need a snap Quinnipiac poll) realize that ICE assaults could be turned on them.

“If the NFL, many of whose owners bankroll Trump, see Bad Bunny as good for business, that’s very bad for the regime.” @edgeofsports.bsky.social 🧵👇🏼

Thread/article

Trump has long tried to bully professional sports -- and particularly the NFL -- into doing his culture war bidding. But his influence is waning, big time.

They like the tough-guy cosplay, but the vast majority find distasteful the hands-on brutality.

This

MAGA and a lot of mainstream figures acted like the 2024 election was a binding referendum on American culture. Except Bad Bunny's popular, and ICE really isn't. A best-selling, grammy-winning musician playing the Super Bowl is normal. Very American. As Puerto Ricans and many Spanish speakers are.

This is an important excerpt from @gregsargent.bsky.social’s piece. More people still support Trump and ICE than I would like, but it’s true that Trump and co assumed the manosphere would be with them unanimously. And that’s not the case. newrepublic.com/article/2062...

“Football has been an arena in which some of the biggest cultural battles of the Trump era have been fought—and Trump and MAGA seem to think it’s turf they should own exclusively. But it isn’t.” @gregsargent.bsky.social captures exactly why Trump & MAGA are so angry about Bad Bunny’s halftime show

Yep. The polling data we obtained shows that more than two thirds of young men disapprove of ICE enforcement and oppose deporting longtime residents with jobs and no criminal records:

A crucial point bc, as Cedric Robinson reminds us, “the first attack is an attack on culture.” Culture is the “common sense“ language through which power is mediated. It is the weakest point in fascist systems & disproportionately facilitates their collapse.

“Trump views the NFL as a place where violence and toxic masculinity should be celebrated...If the NFL, many of whose owners bankroll Trump, see Bad Bunny as good for business, that’s very bad for the regime.” - @edgeofsports.bsky.social, quoted in this piece:

Worth reading. I think Bad Bunny's performance feels spot-on this year because a lot of Americans suddenly find themselves feeling the way some in the PR have felt for decades: their home is being enshittified by the American government

This is a game in which Bad Bunny wins and the teams are inclusion versus exclusion. Wins on behalf of the former.

Excellent piece. Read 👇🏼

Trump is badly losing the war over ICE, not just on the streets, but also in the culture. As Bad Bunny shows, this has become a culture war unto itself. Trump-MAGA's initial hubris has been utterly deflated. I've got fresh data illustrating the point. 1/ (new piece) newrepublic.com/article/2062...

Everyone talks about the Schmitt-ian basis for Trump/MAGA and the crisis they have foisted on us, but this from @mattpolprof.bsky.social does it so well: jacobin.com/2026/02/mann...

Agree.

People are mad at @samuelmoyn.bsky.social but this is a good piece from him and @ryandoerfler.bsky.social on need to accept that SCOTUS has become functionally illegitimate. Key point is legitimacy does require the public to think the court operates in good faith: www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Useful, clarifying examination of Trumpism from @nilsgilman.bsky.social, focusing on its foundational elements of "extractive" capitalism, white nationalism, "the systematic dismantling of labor protections," abuses of power, self dealing, and corruption: nilsgilman.substack.com/p/the-execut...

For those who don't know, Luttig was once considered the intellectual heir to Scalia. He was about as conservative a judge as you could find...

Pour one out for every professional political pundit, writer, consultant whatever that has spent the last decade trying to pretend that the Trump phenomenon was about trade or opiates and not a big chunk of white america losing its mind over having a black president bsky.app/profile/kyle...

I have been musing about the hypothesis that the ultimate consequence of SCOTUS's opinion in Trump v. U.S. will be the destruction of the rule of law in the U.S. This gift article helps to explain why, in part by emphasizing the evisceration of the Dept. of Justice. www.nytimes.com/2026/02/07/u...

This vector of attack worries me a lot more than the wandering ICE goons on Election Day.

A certain class of elite commentators is allowed to say whatever they want about Dems and immigration -- once that's the topic, it becomes a standards-free zone and they all just congratulate each other for saying the same vacuous and often provably wrong things over and over again about the topic

FWIW this is more or less how white conservatives destroyed multiracial democracy after emancipation. That & paramilitary violence, but of course they would never... oh yeah they're doing that too.

“Trump…doesn’t need to send thousands of troops into the streets. He could maybe get a search warrant and try and seize ballot boxes. Once those ballots are out of the control of election officials, we’ve lost the chain of custody. We can’t be confident that the election results would be accurate.”

"Trump’s immigration policies should no longer be viewed as a distraction from kitchen table issues. They have themselves become a major driver of opposition to his regime." Nice @pkrugman.bsky.social piece on the cultural turn against Trump on immigration: paulkrugman.substack.com/p/american-d...

The way forward for Dems is to abandon the "turn-the-page/turn-the-cheek ethos" and replace it with "proud accountability for enemies of democracy," says @brianbeutler.bsky.social. Post-Trump era must be about accountability, not hollow reconciliation. www.offmessage.net/p/immigratio...

ICE at every polling place? Not nearly enough goons. Refuse to seat winners? No mechanism and would crash markets. Lie about the vote, falsely claim fraud? Very safe bet. Seize ballot boxes in certain locations? Worryingly plausible, as @rickhasen.bsky.social and @gregsargent.bsky.social explain.

We are NOT NEARLY concerned enough! Seriously, put this on blast - people need to understand what's going to be unleashed in November.

there will still be people trying to downplay this threat despite all the proof that it’s more likely than not to happen

So Trump is giving Democrats nine months warning on plans to interfere with the 2026 elections. Dems like Greg Sargent worry about Democratic voters being discouraged by it all but Minneapolis show that Trump's authoritarian bs motivates everyday Dems to fight harder. Elite Dems should take heart.

This is quite a quote from @rickhasen.bsky.social on possibility of Trump seizing ballot boxes: "It may take people in the streets protecting the offices where ballots are being tabulated. The Brooks Brothers riot would look very tame compared to what we might see in 2026." More here:

Well this is horrifying, with the fact we all know he's going to attempt it adding to that horror

Local election officials need to have legal documents pre-drafted to try to prevent this:

Harrowing indeed. Fascist more like. My district could qualify since it’s been gerrymandered.

Here's @rickhasen.bsky.social detailing the scenario in which Trump uses search warrant to seize ballot boxes in a contested 2026 locale. This is more worrisome than ICE at the polls. Hasen also suggests ways to act against this now. It's harrowing stuff: newrepublic.com/article/2062...

Excellent, wide-ranging discussion with @rickhasen.bsky.social and @gregsargent.bsky.social on the regime’s ham-handed threats to mess with free and fair midterm elections. The people need to mobilize like the people of Minneapolis to GOTV and hold the president and Rs accountable for their actions.

Trump's FBI raid in Georgia is potential model for getting search warrant to seize 2026 ballot boxes, says @rickhasen.bsky.social. "Once those ballots are out of control of election officials we’ve lost chain of custody." On the pod Rick illuminatingly explains all: newrepublic.com/article/2062...

This points out something that we've talked about for a few decades by now, the fact that reading and viewing comprehension skills have deteriorated dramatically in the last 40-50 years.

America is fucked long-term that so many voters cannot accurately absorb factual information.

Trump has an amazing ability, at least when he is out of power, to get people to project onto him whatever favorable policy views they want

The story claims that she works behind the scenes to stop some administration excesses. But in the highlighted example, she (1) gets upset about a child getting snatched; (2) calls Noem; (3) totally buys Noem's bogus story; (4) loses interest by the time it's obvious Noem was lying.

A buddy sent me this clip last night. When I watched it, I thought, "Geez, we're over the anti-ICE tipping point, aren't we?" So I'm with Sargent: I'm not sure that folks in politics and elite media appreciate the cultural shift here...