Nicki Minaj says she has thrown her weight behind Donald Trump because she could not stand to see him being “bullied.”
The rapper has surprised many of her fans by becoming an outspoken supporter of the president in recent months, even appearing on stage with him at a U.S. treasury event last month.
In an interview with Katie Miller, the wife of the architect of Trump’s immigration policies, Stephen Miller, Minaj explained why she has given Trump her backing.
“When I saw how he was being treated over and over and over, I just couldn't handle it,” she said on The Katie Miller Podcast. “I felt that...a lot of that bullying, and the smear campaigns and all of the lying, I felt that that had been done to me for so many years.
“And I was watching it in real time happen to someone else, and I didn't think he deserved it.”
Shortly after the interview, the Superbass hitmaker promised her fans, known as Barbz, that they will “love” the discussion.
Minaj’s seemingly sudden MAGA conversion became clear in November 2025, when she personally thanked Trump for his threats against the Nigerian government over the alleged “killing of Christians”.
The so-called Queen of Rap had previously been a critic of the president. In 2016, she even sang the line, “Island girl, Donald Trump want me go home.”
But a month after praising him over his threats to Nigeria, Minaj gushed about his administration during a Turning Point USA panel alongside Erika Kirk, Charlie Kirk’s widow.
“This administration is full of people with heart and soul, and they make me proud of them,” Minaj said. “Our vice president, he makes me ... well, I love both of them. Both of them have a very uncanny ability to be someone that you relate to.”
Before her album Pink Friday 2 debuted to mixed reviews and prior to her support for Trump, Minaj was considered to be at the very apex of the hip hop world.
Her 2010 debut album, Pink Friday, and a slew of hits, including Pound the Alarm and Starships, cemented her status as one of hip-hop’s leading voices. She also became an icon in the LGBT scene, performing with Madonna at the Super Bowl and regularly voicing her support for the Queer Community.
However, towards the end of the 2010s, Minaj became embroiled in a series of feuds and scandals with her fellow celebrities.
A lengthy dispute between her and Cardi B, as well as a spat with Megan Thee Stallion, meant Minaj was regularly in the headlines for arguing with her fellow stars and not her music.
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