Was Nicki Minaj always a Trump supporter? She spoke at Turning Point USA
- Rapper Nicki Minaj expressed support for President Donald Trump at Turning Point USA's AmericaFest.
- Minaj made a surprise appearance in a conversation with Erika Kirk, the widow of the organization's co-founder.
- Minaj has previously criticized Trump, including in her 2016 song "Black Barbies."
Rapper Nicki Minaj spoke at Turning Point USA's AmericaFest on Dec. 21, expressing support for President Donald Trump.
The weekend conference in Phoenix, Arizona, drew major GOP figures, including Vice President JD Vance. It was the first annual summit since Turning Point USA's co-founder Charlie Kirk was killed while speaking at a Utah campus event in September.
Minaj made a surprise appearance in conversation with Kirk's widow Erika Kirk, who took over leadership of the organization after her husband's passing.
"I have the utmost respect and admiration for our president," Minaj told Kirk at the event. "I don't even know if he knows this, but he has given so many people hope that there's a chance to beat the bad guys and to win and to do it with your head held high and your integrity intact."
Here is what else to know about Minaj's previous history with Trump:
Is Nicki Minaj a Trump supporter?
Her remarks at the AmericaFest indicated strong support for the Trump administration.
She drew parallels between herself and the Republican president, noting that they both hail from Queens, New York.
"What it's shown me, personally, is sometimes even in the worst feeling times in your life, you think you're never going to come back from it. But you do. And our president shows that," Minaj said. "He's been through every single thing a person can be through publicly – having to constantly be lied [about]."
The singer did not clarify which lies the president has been combating.
"This administration is full of people with heart and soul, and they make me proud of them," she said later. "I love both of them. They're both powerful men. Smart, strong, all of that. But both of them have a very uncanny ability to be someone that you relate to. I can relate to them."
Her recent posts on social media have also been critical of California Gov. Gavin Newsom and favorable of Trump.
'Island girl, Donald Trump want me go home'
Minaj has not always been an ardent supporter of Trump.
In 2015, she said in a Billboard interview that, "there are points he has made that may not have been so horrible if his approach wasn’t so childish." But in 2016, Minaj released the song "Black Barbies," a remix of Rae Sremmurd's hit"Black Beatles.”
In the song she says, "Island girl, Donald Trump want me go home." Minaj is Trinidadian, and Trump had just won the presidential election on anti-immigration rhetoric when the song came out.
She also used Trump as an example of a double standard for genders in her 2010 documentary "My Time Now."
“Donald Trump can say ‘You’re fired,’” Minaj says in a clip posted to YouTube. “Let Martha Stewart run her company the same way and be the same way! ‘(Expletive). Oh evil b---!’ But Donald Trump, he gets to hang out with young (expletive) and have 50 different wives and just be cool. 'Oh, Donald we love ya!'”
Contributing: Zac Anderson, Maeve McDermott, USA TODAY
Kinsey Crowley is the Trump Connect reporter for the USA TODAY Network. Reach her at [email protected]. Follow her onX (Twitter),Bluesky andTikTok.