Green Day steer clear of politics at Super Bowl 2026 for performance

Green Day have never shied away from making political statements in the past — so why would the 2026 Super Bowl be an exception?

On Sunday evening, the rock trio of Billie Joe Armstrong, Mike Dirnt, and Tré Cool kicked off the Super Bowl LX opening ceremony with a medley of some of their biggest hits, including “Wake Me Up When September Ends,” “Holiday,” and “Boulevard of Broken Dreams.” While they concluded with their 2004 protest anthem “American Idiot,” some fans were dismayed when they skipped certain politically charged lyrics.

Since 2019, the group has been performing “American Idiot” with a timely tweak that targets President Donald Trump. Instead of the original lyrics “I’m not a part of a redneck agenda,” Armstrong has sung, “I’m not a part of the MAGA agenda,” referring to Trump’s campaign slogan, Make America Great Again. But during the Feb. 8 performance, they dropped that verse entirely.

The band also skipped a significant line in “Holiday,” which usually goes, “The representative from California has the floor.” During Green Day’s most recent performance before the Super Bowl on Friday night, they changed the line, with Armstrong singing, “The representative from Epstein Island has the floor.”

Days before they took the stage at the Super Bowl, Armstrong not only sang the song’s amended lyrics at an invitation-only concert held at San Francisco’s Pier 29, but outright criticized Immigration and Customs Enforcement in between their performances of their tracks.

“This goes out to all the ICE agents out there, wherever you are,” Armstrong said from the stage during the Friday evening performance. “Quit that s‑‑‑ty job you have. Because when this is over — and it will be over at some point in time — Kristi Noem, Stephen Miller, JD Vance, Donald Trump, they’re gonna drop you like a bad f‑‑‑ing habit. Come on this side of the line.”

Armstrong also dedicated “Holiday” to Minneapolis in light of the overwhelming presence of ICE in the Minnesota city, which led to the killings of Renée Good and Alex Pretti last month.

President Donald Trump has expressed disappointment that the NFL selected Bad Bunny for its latest Super Bowl halftime show, also lamenting it tapping Green Day for the big game’s opening ceremony. “I’m anti-them,” Trump said of the musicians last month. “I think it’s a terrible choice. All it does is sow hatred. Terrible.”

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Armstrong has been a vocal opponent of the Trump administration. During Trump’s initial presidential campaign in 2016, the frontman compared the politician to Hitler. Years later, during a 2024 concert in Washington, D.C., he held up a Trump mask with the word “idiot” written on it.