While everyone else in the country — and across the globe — is busy hailing Kendrick Lamar‘s eye-catching Super Bowl halftime show, MAGA Republicans like Matt Gaetz are busy having a little meltdown.
Perhaps the former politician-turned talkshow host felt targeted by key lyrics in Lamar’s chosen tracks, or maybe he — like Lauren Boebert — simply failed to comprehend the performance. Whatever the reason, Gaetz was not a fan. He took to social media following Lamar’s broadly-praised performance to share his critique and was quickly told to “shush” by both commenters and X’s own community notes.
Fact-checkers were quick to push back on Gaetz’s proclamation, which claimed that “the halftime show you just watched is clearly the regime’s response to Trump’s historic gains with black men.”
As Gaetz was quickly reminded, this takeaway is dead on arrival, as Lamar was announced as the game’s halftime show performer months before Trump won the 2024 election. He’s not a reaction to Donald Trump; he’s a talented performer and Grammy winner who earned every moment in the Super Bowl spotlight.
Unfortunately, in the minds of people like Gaetz, absolutely everything revolves around Trump. From foreign powers to sports matches, everything everywhere is always a reaction to 47, which makes it impossible for Gaetz to wrap his head around the fact that Lamar’s performance wasn’t some left-wing reactionary tactic.
Lamar was chosen because he’s had a massively successful career, and having popular, talented musicians headline the halftime show has become a Super Bowl tradition. He fits into all of those categories and has got plenty of star power to boot, so he was an easy — and obvious — choice. The fact that he then used his time in the spotlight to deliver biting messages about Trump’s America and the danger our president poses to everyday Americans showcases the artistry that makes Lamar such a popular figure, and it also explains why so many far-right figures took issue with the show.
In Gaetz’s case, the upset was likely due to a number of artistic decisions, not the least of which included Lamar’s targeted takedown of accused pedophiles. It’s likely that nearly every decision Lamar made went straight over Gaetz’s head, but the few that landed — like Lamar’s assertion that America “picked the right time but the wrong guy” — clearly worked their way under Gaetz’s skin.
Thus, the forgettable far-right figure made it his goal to undermine Lamar’s performance. By attributing it mysteriously to “the regime” and referencing fabricated “gains” with Black men, he’s attempting to erode the careful artistry woven throughout Lamar’s performance and sully the weight of key artistic decisions. The American flag composed entirely of Black dancers, the tic-tac-toe board, the reference to Gil Scott-Heron’s 1971 anthem — those were all artistic choices that beautifully critique our current government. In adding them, Lamar made a gorgeously American statement. He used art to communicate a biting political message directly to Trump, and we’ll likely be dissecting key elements of his performance for weeks to come.
But if Gaetz can shift the narrative to paint Lamar as a Democrat plant who just threw some Black people on stage because “woke,” thus erasing the impact of each carefully considered decision Lamar made on stage, then he can dampen the impact of those decisions. It’s a tired tactic, and the speed of the community note on his post indicates most people see it for what it is, but that doesn’t make it any less irritating.
Published: Feb 10, 2025 07:27 pm