Green Day, known for their outspoken political views, are set to perform at the Super Bowl's 60th anniversary opening ceremony on February 8, 2026. The NFL has tapped the rock trio—Billie Joe Armstrong, Mike Dirnt, and Tré Cool—to play a selection of their hits during the event, which will also honour previous Super Bowl MVPs.
The band's inclusion follows backlash from Donald Trump and his MAGA supporters over the NFL's choice of Bad Bunny for the 2025 halftime show. MAGA fans accused the Puerto Rican artist of being a 'massive Trump hater' and an 'anti-ICE activist', and announced a rival event called The All-American Halftime Show.
Green Day have a long history of criticising Trump. In 2016, Armstrong described Trump's followers as 'poor, working-class people' who were 'pissed off' and said Trump had 'preyed on their anger', adding: 'That's f***ing Hitler, man!' At the 2016 American Music Awards, the band led a chant of 'No Trump, no KKK, no fascist USA'.
The band have also altered lyrics to their 2004 hit 'American Idiot', swapping 'I'm not part of a redneck agenda' for 'I'm not part of the MAGA agenda' during live performances since at least 2019, including at Coachella 2025 and Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve in 2023.
Their 2024 song 'The American Dream is Killing Me', originally written in protest of Trump's first presidency, was delayed from its planned 2020 release to avoid being overtly political. Armstrong later said the track addressed the 'anxiety of being an American' amid division and polarisation.
