Days before Rihanna was scheduled to take the stage for her highly anticipated Super Bowl halftime show, Republicans were already up in arms about the "wokeness" of this year's game.
Responding to a tweet from Texas Congressman Ronny Jackson regarding a 2020 photo of Rihanna spray painting "F**k Trump" on a car at the Cadillac Ranch in Amarillo, Trump weighed in on Truth Social earlier this week saying, "Without her "Stylist" she'd be NOTHING. Bad everything, and NO TALENT!"
And although Rihanna performed a flawless medley of some of her biggest hits during the show, which was her first big performance in nearly seven years, Trump doubled-down on his initial statement with another message to Truth Social made minutes after she left the stage.
"EPIC FAIL: Rihanna gave, without question, the single worst Halftime Show in Super Bowl history," Trump wrote. "This after insulting far more than half of our Nation, which is already in serious DECLINE, with her foul and insulting language. Also, so much for her 'Stylist.'"
Prior to the halftime show, Donald Trump Jr. was braced for a performance that could only be seen as shocking if you were born in a glass of whole milk, tweeting, "On a scale of 1 to the Grammys how satanic will the #SuperBowlLVII Halftime Show be?"
This worry of "satanism" at the Super Bowl was echoed by other likeminded Republicans like Nick Adams from the America First Policy Institute who tweeted, "Something about Rihanna's performance feels Satanic. I could be wrong, I am just speaking my mind."
Opening with her 2015 single, "B***h Better Have My Money," although she will receive no paycheck for her performance tonight, she filled the set with the following songs:
"Where Have You Been?"
"Only Girl in the World"
"We Found Love"
"Rude Boy"
"Work"
"Wild Thoughts"
"Pour It Up"
"All of the Lights"
"Run This Town"
"Umbrella"
"Diamonds"
SHE’S BAAAACK 👑 @Rihanna #AppleMusicHalftime pic.twitter.com/rH2G9r2RSc
— NFL (@NFL) February 13, 2023
What makes the already spectacular performance even more so, is that she performed while visibly pregnant. Rolling Stone confirmed as much in a report after the show referring to her unborn child as the night's "special guest."
