A rumor that circulated online in October 2025 claimed videos depicted an audio recording of U.S. President Donald Trump describing rapper Bad Bunny as originating from "the Mexican city of Puerto Rico." Social media users discussed this matter after the NFL, Apple Music and Roc Nation announced the Puerto Rican-born singer as the headliner for the Super Bowl halftime show in February 2026. Snopes received reader emails and searches asking about this subject. One user inquired via email, "Did President Trump call Puerto Rico a city in Mexico?"
In the supposed audio recording, Trump purportedly says, in part, "The halftime show of our next Super Bowl will be done by Bad, can't believe I'm saying this, Bad Bunny, ok? Now, what I've been told, we have intel briefings, this is a person from the Mexican city of Puerto Rico, ok? And, already I have a problem with that."
On social media, users shared this rumor on Bluesky (archived), Facebook (archived), Instagram (archived), Threads (archived), TikTok (archived) and X (archived). Their videos did not display a visual of Trump saying the words. Instead, some of the clips showed users' reactions while listening to the alleged Trump audio. One TikTok clip (archived) received over 3 million views and displayed a text caption reading, "Apparently, Bad Bunny hails from the 'Mexican province of Puerto Rico,' at least according to Donald Trump." Users' comments suggested some people believed Trump genuinely made the remarks.
Searches of Bing, DuckDuckGo, Google and Yahoo did not locate any news outlets reporting Trump made any such comments about the U.S. territory of Puerto Rico existing as a "Mexican city." Instead, those searches found a Lead Stories fact-check article debunking the matter.
The audio originated with stand-up comedian and Trump impersonator J-L Cauvin. On Sept. 29, he shared his original video, which included a visual of himself performing the impersonation, on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and X. His Facebook, Instagram and TikTok uploads each received millions of views.
Via Messenger, Cauvin told us, "On one hand it's gratifying to know that something I've worked on for many years is good enough to entertain and even fool people, but on the other hand it's embarrassing as an American that so many people consider this not just plausible as something Trump would say, but highly likely. As a comedian, I just wish my video/work were getting more views than some of the reactions and lip syncs of it!"
Similar Trump rumor about alleged slip-up
A similar rumor in October 2025 also claimed Trump referred to the leaders of Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands as presidents, when in fact governors lead both territories — with Trump presiding as president over all U.S. states and territories.
In 2018, we reported Trump remarked, "I met with the president of the Virgin Islands." Trump made the comment during his first presidential term on Oct. 13, 2017.
Searches of the aforementioned search engines failed to locate more recent examples of him making this mistake, including finding no instances of him specifically naming the leader of Puerto Rico as the territory's "president."