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"One of the worst, EVER… nobody understands a word this guy is saying," President Donald Trump fumed on Truth Social after Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl halftime show. His allies even built a rival: Turning Point USA’s "All-American Halftime Show," which peaked at a little over 5 million concurrent YouTube viewers, about 4 percent of a typical Super Bowl halftime audience.
The same fight is erupting in other traditionally apolitical arenas, and many of them can't be policed. JD Vance was booed at the Winter Olympics opening ceremony and British-American competitor Gus Kenworthy posted a profane anti-ICE message (in urine) on his personal social feed; kids on Roblox staged virtual anti-ICE marches and fictional raids; creators on Facebook and Instagram pumped out AI "resistance" fan-fiction or bizarre, viral "no queso, no cheese" protest clips; and Portland’s inflatable-costumed Frog Brigade leaned into "tactical frivolity" to lampoon militarized enforcement.
The pattern is hard to miss: when culture moves to platforms and feeds, MAGA’s counter-programming keeps drawing slivers of the audience while the bigger stages—and the internet's weirder ones—talk back on their own terms.
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Common Knowledge
Trump’s culture-war frame is simple: the NFL and the Olympics are going woke. On Sunday night he declared Bad Bunny’s set "a slap in the face to our Country," adding: "Nobody understands a word this guy is saying, and the dancing is disgusting."
Turning Point USA pitched its rival show as pure apple pie. "The All-American Halftime Show is an opportunity for all Americans to enjoy a halftime show with no agenda other than to celebrate faith, family, and freedom," said TPUSA spokesman Andrew Kolvet in the launch release.
The left’s counternarrative has two prongs. First, Bad Bunny’s performance was a mainstream cultural event—historic, elaborately staged, and, for a Super Bowl halftime, unsurprisingly massive. Last year's halftime averaged 133.5 million U.S. viewers, and in recent years the show has routinely topped 100 million.
Second, conservative counter-programming looks niche by comparison. Reports put TPUSA’s YouTube audience in the 3–5.7 million range at peak—"millions," yes, but tiny next to the official show.
Uncommon Knowledge
The Super Bowl was the most visible sign of a trend that's filtering through online, often in bizarre, nonsensical ways, driven by AI. Far from stadiums, the same immigration fight has spilled into the youth internet.
Roblox Anti-ICE Protests
Teens and tweens used private servers in the popular Brookhaven role-playing game to stage virtual anti-ICE marches, using avatars holding protest signs, while others dressed as ICE officers conducted "raids." Clips on TikTok racked up millions of views. Roblox said that raid reenactments violate its rules against recreating "real-world sensitive events" and said it is taking "swift action" against violators.
AI-generated 'Resistance' Fan Fiction
After two fatal shootings by federal agents in Minneapolis drew national attention, creators pumped out cinematic, AI-generated short videos on Instagram and Facebook showing stylized scenes of "revisionist justice": a school principal announcing "let me show you why they call me bat girl" as she confronts agents; a shop owner invoking the Fourth Amendment; agents made to do "perp walks." They’re cathartic fantasies that nonetheless amass millions of views.
'No Queso, No Cheese' Satire
A widely shared clip showed "protesters" chanting absurd slogans at masked federal agents before being sprayed with orange gas. Fact-checkers found it was AI-generated: the watermark and telltale artifacts gave it away. It’s a case study in how parody becomes propaganda as it hops platforms.
Inflatable Frog Brigade
In Portland, protesters donned green inflatable frog suits outside an ICE facility to lampoon the "domestic terrorist" label. The tactic turned darkly memorable when a federal agent was filmed pepper-spraying into a frog’s air vent—a visual designed to make police response look absurdly disproportionate.
The through-line isn’t only that one side is "winning"—it’s that cultural power now depends on formats you don’t control. Roblox is not Fox; Instagram fanfic is not Meet the Press. The same AI pipelines that spin up "Bat Girl vs. ICE" also crank out slop for the right. Both train audiences to doubt even true images. That’s not simple a left-right victory; that’s a loss for reality—and a reminder that in 2026, culture war isn’t just everywhere. It’s eminently forgeable.
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