This is The Daily Blast from the New Republic, produced and presented by the DSR Network. I'm your host, Greg Sargent. In the wake of bad bunnies widely acclaimed performance at the Super Bowl, anger from Donald Trump and Maga has only grown. Trump exploded in rage on truth social and numerous Maga figures denounced the show as a betrayal of America. This comes amid new signs that Trump is hemorrhaging support from his base, as one polling analysts showed in a remarkable CNN segment. We think these things are all connected. Trump, Maga Fury, over a half-time show put on by Bad Bunny, a leading ice critic, shows that Maga is deeply out of touch with the American mainstream, and that's visible in data showing Trump leading working class support. We're working through all this today with Adrian Carasquillo, who covers immigration and Latino culture for the bull work. Adrian, great to have you on. Thanks so much, Greg, really an honor to be on with you. So let's start with Trump and his base. Listen to this from CNN polling analyst, Harry Anten. Well, Donald Trump's base with non-college voters is absolutely collapsing. What are we talking about here? Well, why don't we just take a look? Voters without a college degree on Donald Trump. Look at this. Back in 2024, he won those voters over Kamala Harris by 14 points. You come over to this side of the screen. What's his net approval rating with him? He is underwater by nine points. That's a 23 point switcheroo with his base of non-college voters. He is absolutely collapsing. So Harry's using an average of polls there, and he finds that compared to Trump's 2024 showing with non-college voters, which is a proxy for working class, he's now swung 23 points and trails among them by nine. Adrian Trump's coalition relies on the inroads he's made with non-white working class voters and also on overwhelming support with the white working class. He's been written about the non-white working class. That coalition is really unraveling your thoughts on that? Yeah, I mean, on the one hand, of course, we understand why we're here. We all saw what happened, you know, November 2024, and we understood the way that our politics reacted to that. On the other hand, what about this would be surprising, right? Like, Trump is claiming now credit for this economy. Who feels good about this economy? What I have found now when I look at focus groups and when I talk to folks is that immigration is this really secondary, powerful issue, you know, this sort of backstop and this hammer as a second issue. That's like, well, wait a second. We've seen construction workers say, oh, I thought he was going to help the economy. That's why I voted for him because I need my job and I need my finance to be to improve. Oh, wait, that's not happening. And then on top of that, he's going for taxpayers and churchgoers and, you know, your kids, soccer, girls, parents are being disappeared. You know, so now people are just like nothing that we signed up for, do we want? And look, and I know that you know this too, when people used to say that they were supportive of mass deportation and maybe, you know, numbers in a CBS news poll in the fall of 2024 or 53% or 54%, which were in huge numbers. But a lot of that was around the Biden border stuff, right? Like people were like, the border is porous. I have an issue with this and we heard that repeatedly over and over again. But people never knew what interior enforcement was. Really, we do this all the time. People did not know that, well, that meant that you're kicking open the door of people who live in these communities. Now that people have seen this and that it has gone not just from the Latino and, you know, the immigrant that maybe you have some empathy and compassion for, but literal people in your neighborhoods and, you know, US citizens, it has opened the eyes to what this party is doing, what Trump is doing, what Magga is doing. And I'll have, you know, Democrats and folks tell me like, this is not good for them for November. I mean, Steven Miller must know this Trump must know this, but there's just this idea that I guess they're just going to do as much as they can and then come with May in November, right? It does look that way. Well, into this steps, bad bunny who puts on this halftime show that was all in Spanish, bad bunny has emerged as a major critic of ICE and an emblem of anti-ice pro immigrant America, really. Before we get to the reaction from Trump and Magga, and you just give us your thoughts on what you saw in that show and what it maybe meant to a lot of Americans as someone who really covers the intersection of Latino culture and US politics. Yeah, I mean, you know, I was, I was sort of a tongue in cheek earlier telling my boss is that I think one of the things that I hate about covering politics and about this administration is that now everything is through a political lens. I really just wanted to enjoy that show, but I could keep thinking it kept seeping into my brain. Oh, Magga's going to hate this. Oh, they must be hating this. Not just Spanish, but then you just get into like all the parts of it that are so cultural and so specific. I think for me, what stood out was that the Grammys was like very explicit. Let me tell you my statement. Let me give you my statement. And then you said you had a super bowl show that was more about his joy, about the dancing, about his culture, very specific about Puerto Rico and moments where the power is going out and that calls back to the power going out in Puerto Rico all the time and post Hurricane Maria, how difficult the rehabilitation has been there, bringing the island back. So, you know, I just thought that, you know, there was a moment where he did this wedding and like we all have weddings in our culture, but the sort of waking up the little kid with the music that's impossibly loud and everybody's dancing and everybody's all different ages and they're dancing. There was stuff that I think it just brought to me that he's affirming humanity at a time of this administration is denying us our humanity and so that of itself is powerful right there. And you can't deny that when he says America, we, you as Centric think, oh, he makes United States, then he lists all the countries in Latin America and he ends with the United States. He's saying we are all America, you know, and I think that also must get under the skin of the Macafos. I think in a way, if you put it all together, what was on display there was a very non-magaway of looking at our country. 100% a non-magaway of looking at the country and I think that the messenger matters so much and we know this, but can I just bring back a little bit of trauma for folks? I don't know if you guys remember Hillary Clinton in 2016 had loved Trump's hate and that didn't really work for her. So why does bad bunnies message, which is just very similar conceptually, he's saying the only thing stronger than hate is love, but it works when it's coming from the sky, who's Latino, who's Puerto Rican, who is unabashedly, authentically himself. And I mean, this is his message, right? Like that we need to be together and that's what he said during the Grammys. He said it's not about hating them, it's about loving our people and protecting our people. And that resonates so powerfully when you see, I saw so many, you know, black TikTok creators saying they couldn't wait. They don't know what he's going to be saying. They don't understand them, but they couldn't wait to be enjoying the show. And again, that gets to that solidarity and that stuff that Democrats have in the past benefited from and that I think they will again probably November. Yeah, well, Trump, as you can imagine, had already been raging about the decision to feature bad bunny in the halftime show. And then when he saw it, he absolutely erupted. I'm just going to read from his tweet, quote, the Super Bowl halftime show is absolutely terrible. And in front to the greatness of America, nobody understands a word this guy is saying. And the dancing is disgusting. It's just a slap in the face to our country. It will get great reviews from the fake news media because they haven't got a clue of what is going on in the real world. Close quote. Adrian, this is someone who's absolutely convinced that most Americans are going to see the show as somehow an insult to the country. It's kind of funny because he accuses others of not having a clue about what's going on in the real world. But he's plainly out of touch with how most Americans will receive this thing. Don't you think? He's 100% out of touch. And I mean, it reminds me of when I wrote about the shooting of Renee Good and why she was dangerous because she was a blonde white woman who was standing up for her neighbors and for immigrants. And, you know, there was a killing of a Chicago named Silvejo in the fall in September who was dropping off his kid at daycare, who's three years old. And a couple minutes later, they box him in. He gets scared. He tries to get out of there and they kill the guy. And that did not get as much attention. But this white woman, U.S. citizen, we all saw this horrific video. That did get attention. And that I think pisses them off and worries them almost as much as anything, which is the people sort of saying, hey, why are you doing that to my neighbor? Hey, I go to the church with this person. And I think that that's what is so annoying and frustrating to them. Don't you think that to most Americans, they're going to just see this as a sort of celebration of diversity and a celebration of immigration? I think that's how most Americans will receive this show. And to MAGA and Trump, that very idea, the idea of celebrating diversity, the idea of celebrating immigration as a positive good for the country, is itself a bridge too far. Let's repellent to them. Absolutely. It's repellent. Everything with them is zero sum. I mean, let's look at Kendrick Lamaralashir. I'm not a huge Kendrick fan. I'm not as big a rap fan these days. I used to be one of those younger. But I can appreciate it for what it is. And I'm watching this show. And I'm understanding that there's people watching that really, really get every single little message and thing. And so that's, I think yesterday, like a lot of people watching yesterday do not speak Spanish, do not get all the specific Puerto Rico cultural references. But just from the show, just from the varied people that are dancing, the sort of, they know who Lady Gaga is, they know who Ricky Martin is, you know, from his time when he crossed over and came to the US. So I think that just like, that's what the Super Bowl has always been about. I mean, that's what the NFL understands now that Jay-Z is in charge of the, of the halftime performance. It's sort of like putting your arms around America and saying, this is all us. And then that's what that bunnies had message on the football set, right? That this is America, all of us together. And that has never been what Maga has supported. They've always been like, this 30% of America matters. And then everybody else sort of screwed yourself. To stay up to date on all the news that you need to know, there's no better place than right here on the DSR network. And there's no better way to enjoy the DSR network than by becoming a member. Members enjoy an ad-free listening experience, access to our Discord community, exclusive content, early episode access, and more. Use code DSR26 for a 25% off discount on signup at the DSRNetwork.com. Slash by. Thank you and enjoy the show. Idol money lies in your current account picking crumbs out of its belly button wondering, should I eat them? But when you start investing with Monzo, your money's always busy. You turn on regular investments, invests your spare change, and tops up your stocks and shares, I say. It even helps you make sense of risk and return. Monzo, the bank that gets your money moving. You could get back less than you invest. Monzo current account required UK residents 18 plus decent ease of life. Exactly. Well, so Maga, in fact, erupted over this show. Nick Adams, one of Trump's picks as an ambassador, asked, was a single word of English spoken during the show. Laura Lumer said, can't even watch a Super Bowl anymore because immigrants have literally ruined everything. And another Maga influencer attacks bad bunny as a fake American citizen performing who publicly hates America. Well, there you have it, right? Like to them, it is the very fact that immigrants were being celebrated that itself made it unbearable. Yes. And of course, there's so much to break down there, which is, for example, is it Jake Paul or Logan Paul, I get them confused because they just so matter so little to me. But though it was Jake Paul, Jake Paul who called, who called the bad bunny a fake American citizen who has benefited from Puerto Rico's tax laws living there. So he can keep his money, right? And AOC sort of eviscerated over that on Twitter. Yeah, I mean, it's just, and then of course, his bad bunny and immigrant, the answer is no, because he's a Puerto Rican, he's a US citizen. So they just, you know, it sort of pains me to discuss that part of it when people were trying to compare as if Kid Rock was on the same level as bad bunny when bad bunny has 87.5 million Spotify listeners monthly and Kid Rock is 5 million. So yeah, it really does follow everything that's going on in our culture right now, which is you can feel that they know that they are losing grip and that they are losing the backing of the people. I just want to bring up one other quick thing about Laura Lumer, because it's so funny. She actually tweeted at one point during the show, someone calling an ice raid at the Super Bowl, right? Now, what's funny about that is that, you know, back in in October, Homeland Security Secretary Christie, no, I actually did say ice would be all over the Super Bowl. So the plan was to have a big ice presence at the Super Bowl as if that was going to be something people thrilled to at, you know, at the event. But then that was actually canceled and ice didn't do any significant enforcement at the show. And we all know why that is. It's because they would have almost certainly gotten a hostile reception. So to me, that really illustrates something pretty fundamental about how lost Maga is here. Laura Lumer thinks that ice would be welcome at this place. And you know, Maga thinks they own football. Maga thinks the world of football is like they are part of the culture. They own it. As they lose the backing of Americans, all they have is the fear. And there's a reason that those old, you know, comprehensive immigration reform coalitions were powerful because they would have faith. They would have law enforcement. They would have business and business interests are now saying, why the hell would we want ice around the Super Bowl? Are you insane? You know, so like their entire story and narrative, their fantasy about the dangerous immigrant and the national, you know, emergency, we all know it's BS because we've seen it for over a year now. But now all these institutions are finally, I don't even know if they're growing a spine, but they're just realizing this White House is a paper tiger. They're just not as scary as they are. Well, let's try to pull all this together. So you've got the non-white working class. The big story of the 2024 election was that Trump may be surprising inroads with non-white working people. And that was sort of, we were told a death knell potentially for the Democratic Party. If they couldn't figure out that the culture has been lurching to the right, including on immigration, we were actually told that one of the reasons the non-white working class went for Trump in larger numbers than usual was because of his anti-immigrant message that, you know, Democrats have to accept that there's a sizable chunk of anti-immigrant people within the non-white working class. And if Democrats are ever going to compete with the work in class again, they have to embrace in some form an anti-immigrant or at least somewhat restrictionist politics. Now we're seeing that the non-white working class is deserting Trump that whole set of myths around 2024 is in collapse. And the Super Bowl really underscores that, I think, perfectly. Can you talk about this big picture? Yeah, it makes me think about, you know, if we go back to 2024 and that fall, we all knew, and afterwards when we saw the results of the election. We all knew why that was problematic for Democrats because they have in the past relied on these larger percentages and margins with Latino voters. So that's certainly something they had to work on. But I think what got lost there is these voters were not suddenly going to be Republicans forever. They were making a bet that in this particular election, they had some issues with, you know, Biden and Democratic Party and Harris. But the things that they voted for have not come to pass. The economy is a mess. We keep seeing, and all we are seeing, and I don't think that voters generally care that much about our standing in the world and different things. You know, they care about their pocketbook number one. But all we're seeing is that a broad word joke and we're not liked and JD Vance is getting booted at the Olympics. And then what's happening domestically? Nothing that's good for anybody. And, you know, there was that map the other day of the areas where there was blue support in the country, the big cities and the blue states, and then where the ice activity has been. And Trump over the last year going into Democratic let states and cities. And so that to me tells a huge story there, which is that they are, they're really in trouble with what's going on with the community. And we see places like Minnesota the way they're fighting back so bravely. And it's not just black and brown people that are fighting back. It's white people who are saying what the hell do you think you're doing in our communities? This has been pointed out before, but what annoyed Trump and Maga so much about the Super Bowl is partly that white people were enjoying Latino culture. And that is not to be allowed. Yeah, I mean, it's just it was it was interesting. I sometimes when I see the way that he represents the culture and Latinos and stuff, sometimes it hits me kind of emotionally. Yes, I was just having a blast. I just had this like cheesy smile paste that on my face and just thinking about how much Mago was just hating every moment of this was particularly juicy. Yeah. And so it just finished this off right like so the other big myth is also in collapse. The other big myth about 2024, which is that his election represented some sort of fundamental turn against immigrants within the culture within the working class. And that turns out to have been a huge over reading of his win, which was as you pointed out earlier about the economy, about prices and that sort of thing. And so we now see that he's hemorrhaging non-white working class support at the exact moment that he's carrying out the restrictionist agenda. Nobody wants this restrictionism. Nobody wants ice. Nobody wants the paramilitary warfare against cities and nobody wants messy portations on the way he's carrying them out. And you sort of talk about like how that myth has been blown up this myth of an anti-immigrant turn in the culture. Yeah, I don't think it was an anti-immigrant turn. I think the economic anxiety that people had and we saw this even from Latinos that voted for him through an economic lens. But I think that he also knows what's coming and the his administration knows the danger they're in because look at the way that they're trying to mess with the 2026 elections in particular states, you know, trying to look into voting machines and irregularities and all those things. Whatever Tulsi Gabbard is doing, which appears to be only focused on this sort of level of insanity. And I think it's because they know that they're going to get posh out in a big way in November. It's sure looking like that and I sure hope so. I think a lot of that will turn on what happens with these working class voters, but it looks good right now. Folks, if you enjoyed this conversation, make sure to check out Adrian Caraschio's great newsletter, Huddled Masses, which is all about immigration and Latino culture. Adrian, great to have you on there. Thanks for having me. I appreciate it.
