On Friday evening, Apple CEO Tim Cook posted a selfie on X with Bad Bunny—the reggaeton star headlining tomorrow’s Apple Music Super Bowl LX Halftime Show—with the caption: “Can’t wait for the Super Bowl and the #AppleMusicHalftime Show!” It was a routine corporate promo. What followed was not.
The replies turned into a bipartisan demolition job. Conservatives furious he was promoting an artist they consider anti-American. Progressives furious that the same CEO who spent the past year attending White House events was now borrowing cultural credibility from one of the administration’s loudest critics. Both sides agreed on exactly one thing: they don’t like Tim Cook right now.
Can’t wait for the Super Bowl and the #AppleMusicHalftime Show! pic.twitter.com/hW6A45SBC7
— Tim Cook (@tim_cook) February 7, 2026
The Right: “No Thanks, I’ll Be Watching Kid Rock”
Bad Bunny has been a lightning rod since being named the halftime performer in September—an artist who previously boycotted U.S. concerts over ICE raids and told critics on Saturday Night Live they had “four months to learn” Spanish. The conservative response has been escalating for months, culminating in Turning Point USA organizing a full counterprogram halftime show headlined by Kid Rock. So when Cook posted his selfie, that crowd showed up ready. Conservative commentator Gunther Eagleman replied: “No thanks! I’ll be watching a real American, Kid Rock,” racking up 5,600 likes and 40,000 views. Others pledged to change the channel entirely. One user warned Cook he was “making the majority of Americans put up their iPhones for sale on marketplace right now.”
The Left: “Resign. Bad Bunny Ain’t Gonna Save You.”
From the opposite direction, one of the most-viewed replies quote-tweeted Cook’s selfie alongside photos from a White House event on January 25, where Cook attended a private screening of Melania Trump’s documentary in black tie. The message: “Resign asshole. Bad Bunny ain’t gonna save you.” That reply pulled 14,000 views.
The January visit had already made Cook a target—it fell on the same day a Veterans Affairs nurse was fatally shot by Border Patrol agents in Minneapolis, and the backlash included boycott threats and shareholders writing to Apple in protest. So when Cook resurfaced two weeks later posing casually with one of the administration’s most prominent cultural opponents, progressives didn’t see Super Bowl excitement. They saw a man trying to have it both ways.
And Then There Were the Jokes
Because no ratio is complete without comedy, multiple users independently noted that Cook, in his glasses and silver hair, bore an unfortunate resemblance to a certain late financier. “You look like if Jeffrey Epstein was vegan,” wrote one. Another described the photo as “a polyamorous couple on Tinder looking for a 3rd.” The account Earth No Context offered three words—“Let him cook”—that, given the CEO’s surname, practically wrote themselves. Perhaps the sharpest reply cut through all the politics entirely: “I know you’re posting this because it’s the ‘Apple Music Halftime show,’ and you could care less about any of this, but you really should read the room. Whoever advised you that this was a good plan should be fired (along with the lawyers).”
Why Cook Can’t Win This One
Cook has spent the past year as one of the most visible corporate figures in Trump’s orbit—attending White House dinners, making investment pledges, and building the kind of political proximity that shielded Apple from the worst of the tariff wars on Chinese imports. It worked for the balance sheet. But it left him with no neutral ground. He can’t distance himself from the halftime show—Apple is the title sponsor. And he can’t distance himself from the administration—Apple’s supply chain depends on that relationship staying warm. The selfie was supposed to be the easy part. Instead, it became a Rorschach test: conservatives saw a CEO endorsing their enemy, progressives saw a CEO trying to culturally launder his administration ties, and the memers saw a vegan Jeffrey Epstein on Tinder.
What Happens Next
The Super Bowl kicks off Sunday at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara. Bad Bunny takes the halftime stage. ICE agents will reportedly be in the building. Kid Rock will be streaming from somewhere else. And Tim Cook will be watching—knowing that no matter what happens on that field, half the internet already blames him for it.
