Claim:
U.S. President Donald Trump said he "talked to the president of Puerto Rico.”
In October 2025, a series of posts claimed U.S. President Donald Trump mistakenly said he "talked to the president of Puerto Rico" while criticizing Puerto Rican singer Bad Bunny, who will headline the 2026 Super Bowl halftime show.
One post appeared to make fun of Trump for the alleged gaffe, stating, "BRO THAT'S YOU! YOU'RE THE PRESIDENT of Puerto Rico."
Snopes readers sent us the following image supposedly showing a Fox News chyron with the text: "I have asked the President of Puerto Rico to look into if we can deport Bad Bunny back there after the Super Bowl."
(Image via reader mail)
Readers also searched our website for evidence of Trump making the alleged statement, as well as information on whether he supposedly called to "impeach" the apparent "president of Puerto Rico."
The rumors were fictional. Trump never said he talked to the "president of Puerto Rico," nor did he advocate for such an impeachment. As such, we have rated this claim incorrectly attributed.
We searched for variations of the in-question quote on Google and found no reputable news outlets reporting on it. If Trump had really said he talked to "the president of Puerto Rico," journalists would have reported the gaffe.
We also looked for evidence of the alleged Fox News chyron.
It was not genuine. The font in the above screenshot was inconsistent with Fox News' standard style.
The image originated with a satirical Facebook account by James Schlarmann, who has a history of posting what he considers to be humorous memes with fake Fox News chyrons.
As first reported by fact-checking outlet Lead Stories, Trump really did mistakenly refer to the "president of the Virgin Islands" in 2017. Per the White House's archived transcripts, officials corrected Trump's remarks to state he was referring to the governor (emphasis, ours):
We also stand with the millions of people who have suffered from the massive fires, which are right now raging in California, and the catastrophic hurricanes along the Gulf Coast, in Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands. And I will tell you, I left Texas, and I left Florida, and I left Louisiana, and I went to Puerto Rico, and I met with the president [governor] of the Virgin Islands.
The rumor about Trump supposedly saying he "talked to the president of Puerto Rico" emerged after the NFL announced Bad Bunny as the 2026 Super Bowl halftime headliner. In response to the selection, Trump reportedly told Newsmax, "I don't know who he is. I don't know why they're doing it. It's like, crazy. And then they blame it on some promoter that they hired to pick up entertainment."
In a September 2025 interview, before the Super Bowl announcement, Bad Bunny told journalists he was doing a residency in Puerto Rico and touring the world but would not go to the mainland U.S. over concerns about Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) targeting his fans.
We previously covered how Trump advisor Corey Lewandowski said ICE officials will be at Bad Bunny's Super Bowl performance.