One of the most memorable moments of Super Bowl LX happened off the field, where former President Barack Obama delivered an unexpected master class in high-road shade and landed a fist to the latest culture war over the Bad Bunny halftime show. In a social media post that looked harmless on its face, Obama flipped years of birtherism and racial dog-whistles into a clever punchline that left MAGA loyalists seeing red, even if President Donald Trump doesn’t want to admit it. Former President Barack Obama moderates a conversation with Manu Meel, Co-Founder and CEO of BridgeUSA, Ainka Jackson, Founding Executive Director of the Selma Center for Nonviolence, Truth, and Reconciliation and Nika Kovač, Director of the Slovenia-based Institute 8th of March during the Obama Foundation’s 2024 Democracy Forum on December 05, 2024, in Chicago, Illinois. (Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images) The Obamas effectively dropped the mic on Trump’s racist Truth Social post from last week without ever acknowledging it directly. As Trump has refused to apologize for sharing a video depicting Barack and Michelle Obama as cartoon apes, Obama remained silent until Sunday, countering with nothing more than a music playlist that took aim at Trump’s grievance politics and the conservative fixation on who does and doesn’t count as American. The upbeat clip from the Obama Foundation dropped ahead of the halftime show, spotlighted by the 31-year-old Puerto Rican artist whose real name is Benito Martinez Ocasio. The video featured a compilation of Bad Bunny’s appearances on Obama’s annual “Favorite Songs of the Year” playlist, dating back to 2020. In the footage, the songs and titles are intercut with scenes of the Obamas dancing and celebrating to Bunny’s music. The caption did the rest: “From one natural-born US citizen to another, have a great Benito Bowl!” Followers immediately clocked the line as deliberate trolling of Trump and the anti-woke crowd.  Bondi Tries to Hold the Line for Trump After He Drops Her — Then One Unplanned Question Hits and In a Split Second the Cracks Start Showing View on Threads Obama, 64, never mentioned Trump by name, though the current president has spent years promoting the birther conspiracy, in which he continues to falsely claim that Obama is not a U.S. citizen. As late as 2017, The New York Times cited an unnamed U.S. senator who said Trump “has had a hard time letting go of his claim that Mr. Obama was not born in the United States.” Obama’s subtle clapback landed just days after Trump targeted the Obamas in a racist video posted to his Truth Social page. Trump has yet to apologize despite backlash from GOP allies. Social media reactions pointed to the contrast in tone and approach.  One commenter described Obama’s post as “Classy pettiness.”  Another simply noted, “The shade game is strong.”  Others pointed out the irony, using sarcasm to contrast Obama’s restraint with Trump’s childish behavior. “Could have been worse. Obama could have posted a racist meme. But no President would ever stoop that low,” one wrote on MSN Another added, “Rock on, Obama! Too bad we don’t have a classy intelligent man of integrity in the Whitehouse anymore.” Days earlier, Trump’s bigoted post ignited a firestorm across the internet. Trump said he was shown the beginning of the video, but claimed he didn’t watch the entire clip before it was posted. “I guess during the end of it, there was some kind of picture people don’t like. I wouldn’t like it either, but I didn’t see it,” he explained to reporters aboard Air Force One. “I just, I looked at the first part, and it was really about voter fraud.” Asked whether he would apologize, Trump flatly refused. “No, I didn’t make a mistake. I mean … I look at a lot of, thousands of, things, and I looked at the beginning of it. It was fine.” View on Threads He then blamed a low-level White House staffer for posting the clip, while insisting the offensive imagery was a minor detail he missed. The Obamas did not comment at the time. Trump’s divisiveness bled into the Super Bowl halftime show, where Bad Bunny sang entirely in Spanish. For months, MAGA devotees have raged against the NFL for inviting a Spanish-speaking performer, with many critics exhibiting confusion over the fact that Puerto Ricans are U.S. citizens. During the past week, conservative commentator Tomi Lahren declared Bad Bunny “is not an American artist,” prompting guest Krystal Ball to reply that Puerto Rico is “part of America, dear.” Just a week before the big game, Turning Point USA announced Kid Rock would headline its alternative “All American Halftime Show.” In the days since, resurfaced comments from Kid Rock have drawn fresh scrutiny, including lyrics alluding to the rape of underage girls and his 2001 Saturday Night Live remark about the underage Olsen twins: “If there’s grass on the field, play ball!” It’s unclear whether Trump saw the clip posted by the Obama Foundation. Still, the halftime show itself apparently ignited his fury despite Bunny’s message of unity throughout his performance. In a lengthy Truth Social post, Trump inadvertently revealed he was watching Bad Bunny’s halftime — the very set he had earlier urged his supporters to skip in favor of the alternative concert with Kid Rock. “The Super Bowl Halftime Show is absolutely terrible, one of the worst, EVER! It makes no sense, is an affront to the Greatness of America, and doesn’t represent our standards of Success, Creativity, or Excellence,” Trump railed. “Nobody understands a word this guy is saying, and the dancing is disgusting, especially for young children that are watching from throughout the U.S.A., and all over the World. This ‘Show’ is just a ‘slap in the face’ to our Country … There is nothing inspirational about this mess of a Halftime Show and watch, 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. …” ‘Shade Game Is Strong’: Obama Savagely Flips Trump’s Racist Video On Its Head and Its Guaranteed to Make Trump Seethe ...read more read less