Was Trump invited to this year’s superbowl?
Executive summary
Donald Trump has publicly stated he will not attend this year’s Super Bowl on February 8 at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, citing that the trip is “just too far away,” comments first reported in an interview with the New York Post and covered broadly by outlets including Reuters and The Guardian [1] [2]. Contemporary reporting documents his criticisms of the chosen performers — Bad Bunny and Green Day — and his declaration that he is “anti” those acts, but none of the news stories in the provided reporting explicitly confirm whether the NFL or event organizers extended a formal invitation to the president [3] [1].
1. The public record: Trump says he won’t go, repeatedly
Multiple mainstream outlets report the same core fact: Trump told the New York Post he plans to skip the Super Bowl in northern California because the trip is “just too far away,” a remark repeated in Reuters, The Guardian, USA Today and other outlets that also note his prior Super Bowl attendance in 2025 [1] [2] [4].
2. Why he says he’s staying away — distance and performers
In the interviews and coverage, the president frames his decision two ways: logistics (“a little bit shorter” would have made him consider attending) and politics, attacking the selection of Bad Bunny and Green Day as “terrible” choices and saying he is “anti-them,” language reported across People, NBC, Rolling Stone and Fox News [5] [3] [6] [7].
3. What the reporting does not show: no confirmed invitation on the record
Despite widespread repetition of Trump’s decision to skip the game, the assembled reporting does not include any sourcing that the NFL or Super Bowl hosts formally invited the president this year; articles state his intent to not attend but do not cite an invitation or offer from organizers, so the public record in these sources is silent on whether an invite existed [1] [2].
4. Context: last year’s attendance and why pundits care
Coverage repeatedly reminds readers that Trump became the first sitting president to attend a Super Bowl in 2025, a precedent that makes his presence or absence newsworthy this year and that amplifies commentary about whether his non-attendance is a political statement or simple logistics [1] [4].
5. Reactions and the alternative narrative — critics and supporters
Responses split along predictable lines: critics mocked the announcement and questioned whether he’d even been invited, a theme picked up by outlets such as IBTimes and social-media reactions recounted in several pieces, while conservative commentators framed his decision as a principled rebuke of the NFL’s entertainment choices and alleged politicization of the halftime show [8] [9].
6. Assessing motives and hidden agendas in the coverage
The reporting reveals competing incentives: Trump’s remarks serve his political base by spotlighting culturally divisive performers and reinforcing a grievance narrative, while media outlets emphasize his prior attendance and the novelty of a sitting president at the Super Bowl to drive audience interest; neither set of sources provides independent verification of an invitation, so motive attribution beyond Trump’s stated reasons relies on interpretation rather than new factual disclosure [2] [1] [9].
Conclusion: direct answer to the question
Based on the available reporting, Donald Trump has announced he will not attend this year’s Super Bowl, but the sources provided do not document whether he was formally invited by the NFL or event organizers, so it cannot be confirmed from these reports alone that an invitation was issued [1] [2].