The Buzz: In celebration of bunnies, from Bugs to Bad
Published 1:30 am Sunday, February 15, 2026
By Jon Bauer / Herald Opinion Editor
We’ll blame our childhood Saturday mornings spent with a bowl of Cheerios staring at the Zenith while “The Bugs Bunny-Road Runner Hour” bathed us in bright colors and Carl Stalling’s soundtrack, but we can’t help but see comparisons regarding the on-going feud between Bugs and the constantly exasperated Elmer Fudd and that of Puerto Rican pop star Bad Bunny and President Trump, also constantly exasperated.
Going by recent Truth Social posts, Trump’s either not correcting his spelling or he’s developed Elmer’s speech impediment: “Be vewy, vewy qwiet, we’re hunting thweats to the gweatness of Amewica.”
In other news from a wascally wabbit season:
“Grace? Brotherhood? What are those?” President Trump panned Puerto Rican reggaeton performer Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl halftime show, calling it “one of the worst.” He continued: “It makes no sense, is an affront to the Greatness of America, and doesn’t represent our standards of Success, Creativity, or Excellence. Nobody understands a word this guy is saying, and the dancing is disgusting, especially for young children.”
OK, but we do wonder how many of the lyrics the president understood of Brandi Carlisle’s pre-game performance of “American the Beautiful.”
“I speak fluent Bawitdaba”: Trump made no mention of the alternative halftime show, staged by Turning Point USA and featuring Trump favorite Kid Rock. A video of Trump’s Super Bowl party showed those gathered watching Bad Bunny’s performance but not Kid Rock’s. For the record, Rock performed his 1999 hit “Bawitdaba,” with lyrics that include: “Bawitdaba, da-bang, da-bang, diggy-diggy-diggy / Said the boogie, said up drop the boogie / Bawitdaba, da-bang, da-bang, diggy-diggy-diggy.”
Trump must have watched the Turning Point show later, because in later posts he praised Kid Rock’s performance: “Not since Sinatra’s ‘Do0-bee-doo-bee-doo’ and The Police’s ‘Da-doo-doo-doo, da-da-da-da,’ have American performers evoked the Greatness of America and the Terrific Vocabulary of the Amazing American Words like no one has ever seen.”
“I hope you had the time of your life”: Trump expressed no criticism of the pre-game performance by pop-punk band Green Day, which included a medley of its hits including “Good Riddance,” “Holiday” and “American Idiot,” although CNN reported that most of the more political lyrics were scrubbed from the performance. Although several retired NFL greats, including former New England quarterback Tom Brady, grinned widely and waved at the crowd as Green Day frontman Billie Joe Armstrong crooned, “don’t wanna be an American idiot.”
Brady later got even by deflating the tires on the band’s bus.
As if anyone wants this to last a moment longer than necessary: House Speaker Mike Johnson and fellow Republicans were attempting to manipulate the nature of time this week as they sought to change the definition of a “legislative day” in a bid to block any member of Congress from forcing a vote to end President Trump’s tariffs. Ordinarily, the House could vote after 15 days of a tariff’s imposition to call for a vote, but changing the definition of a day effectively blocks a vote.
Which maybe explains why Johnson doesn’t look a day over 14.
Planes, trains and autogratification: After threatening to cancel $16 billion in federal funding for a major train tunnel between New York and New Jersey, the Trump administration told Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer that the funding would be restored if New York’s Penn Station and Washington’s Dulles International Airport were renamed for President Trump.
As a compromise Schumer offered to hand Trump a can of spray paint, point him toward the subway and tell him to “go wild” with the other graffiti taggers.
“Who’s that tripping over my bridge?” roared the troll: After the owner of a private toll bridge connecting Detroit and Windsor, Ontario, met with U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, President Trump threatened to block the opening of a Canadian-built bridge that would compete for freight traffic with the bridge owned by a U.S. trucking magnate. Trump said he would not allow the bridge, named for Canadian hockey legend Gordie Howe, to open “until the United States is fully compensated for everything we have given them, and also, importantly, Canada treats the United States with the Fairness and Respect that we deserve.” Trump also suggested that the U.S. would seek half of the bridge’s toll revenue.
The international incident was quickly resolved when Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney cut the ribbon on the Donald J. Trump-Gordie Howe International Bridge, Toll Booth and Tim Hortons Donuts.
Well, not with the wife and kids there, of course not: Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick testified to a congressional committee that he and his family had lunch with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein on Epstein’s Caribbean island in 2012. With him for the lunch were Lutnick’s wife, their four children and their nannies. Earlier Lutnick said he had distanced himself from his former neighbor in 2005, but documents recently released among the Epstein files show Lutnick and Epstein remained in contact. Despite those contacts, Lutnick denied having a meaningful relationship with Epstein.
And if you believe that, Lutnick has a bridge he’d like to sell you as long as you rename it for the president.
Fine old carnivores: Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has recruited legendary heavyweight boxer Mike Tyson to assist in his Make America Healthy Again Mission with its “Eat Real Food” campaign, which features a poster of Kennedy emblazoned with Tyson’s face tattoo. Tyson appeared Sunday in a Super Bowl ad for the campaign.
Kennedy said Tyson would be sharing some of his “Real Food” recipes, including one he introduced in 1997: Ear tartare alá Holyfield.
Ain’t I a stinker? The closure of commercial air space over El Paso, Texas, reportedly was triggered by one or more drifting party balloons. Tracked but not initially identified by the U.S. Army, Defense Department drones on loan to Customs and Border Patrol and equipped with high-energy laser technology were dispatched to intercept and destroy what officials at first believed might be Mexican drug cartel drones, but without notifying the Federal Aviation Administration of the operation. Out of caution, the FAA closed down air space around the El Paso airport.
The only question now is which Bunny was responsible for releasing the party balloons.
Email Jon Bauer at jon.bauer@heraldnet.com.
