“When they tried to take [Trump’s] mugshot, that actually was the biggest backfire in American history.” – Nicki Minaj
Nicki Minaj is an immigrant. She moved from the Caribbean nation of Trinidad and Tobago to the United States at the age of five. She grew up known by her given name, Onika, in Jamaica, Queens, eventually becoming one of—if not the—most popular female rapper. This has impacted her worldview, her outlook on politics, and it does affect her opinion on Donald Trump.
In the past, she showed support for former President Barack Obama and former Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton. In a famous clip, as she stomped onstage, she yelled, “Barack needed Michelle and Bill needed a Hillary! You’d better pray to God you don’t get stuck with a motherf—ing Melania!” But recently, she made what’s being viewed as a sharp turn into the far right that even her cult fanbase, the Barbz, might reject. I would argue, though, that this transition is nothing new for the queen of rap.
I would say this journey began around six years ago at the peak of the COVID pandemic. No one knows for sure, but Nicki’s motivations for this change seem partly genuine and partly performative. Some of the most important men she surrounds herself with are sex offenders. Her husband is a convicted rapist, and her brother is currently serving 25 years in prison for sexually assaulting an 11-year-old child. Critics have speculated that by getting close to the current president, she can vie for a pardon to free her brother.
The conviction of her brother perfectly aligned with her entertaining anti-vax conspiracy theories. In 2021, Nicki tweeted about her hesitancy to take the vaccine as it was rolling out to the public. The claim was that her cousin’s friend in Trinidad got swollen testicles after getting the shot. She ended her tweet with, “So just pray on it & make sure you’re comfortable with ur decision, not bullied.”
This friend from Trinidad most likely had an STI, but that didn’t keep white supremacist and Fox News anchor Tucker Carlson from elevating it to mainstream media. The chyron comically read, “NICKI MINAJ: COUSIN’S TESTICLES BECAME SWOLLEN,” as he spouted off about how “sensible” her skepticism was. She later retweeted a clip from his broadcast and went on Instagram Live, further doubling down on her statement and claiming the backlash she received only added to her hesitancy.
At the Pollstar Live conference a year prior, when asked about President Trump, she said, “No, I’m not going to jump on the Donald Trump [hate] bandwagon. I don’t like that. I get a lot of people who don’t like him for obvious reasons.” Despite this, she did push back on his immigration policies.
The second big instance of conservatism was when she did PR for the former member of Little Mix Jesy Nelson, after she was accused of blackfishing. In the video, Jesy adorned a black aesthetic from head to toe. Her hair was styled in braids in some shots, and her skin was tanned to an unnatural level for a white woman from Essex. Jesy’s song “Boyz,” on which Nicki was featured, went viral after the backlash, and Nicki went on the defensive. For me, this was when alarm bells started to ring.
Jesy’s former bandmates, two of whom are women of color, joined the criticism, which brought about ire from Nicki on an Instagram Live. She called them clowns and claimed they were only calling her out because of a personal vendetta. She then said, “There’s a lot of women out here in the United States who tan, get bigger lips. I wear straight blonde hair when I want to.”
But what Nicki fails to understand is that blackfishing is just an evolved version of blackface. Jesy can present herself with all of the fashionable aesthetics of blackness without having to face racism. Similarly to blackface, it also relies on stereotypes of Black culture. So Nicki wearing a blonde wig is nowhere near the same as Jesy pretending she’s Black, especially since having blonde hair isn’t a uniquely European trait. It is a genetic mutation that can be found in Africa, Asia, and the Middle East. Whereas blackface is a visual reminder of Black people’s systemic position of “inferiority.” Similarly to retweeting Tucker Carlson, by defending this act Nicki is showing a pattern of allying with racists.
In the past year, there has been no need for speculation or debate as to where Nicki stands. Her conservative opinions have been confirmed as she praises the president whose policies she once rallied against. In November, she called JD Vance and Trump heroes for putting Nigeria on a watchlist due to alleged anti-Christian violence. She later that month spoke at the United Nations, saying, “I would like to thank President Donald Trump for prioritizing this issue, and for his leadership on the global stage, and calling for urgent action to defend Christians in Nigeria to combat extremism, and to bring a stop to violence against those who simply want to exercise their natural right to freedom of belief.” She taunted the critics on social media afterwards, “United Nations was a MAGA Flex. Trump on da text. Yall should be afraid of what I’m gon do next.”
The next month, she appeared alongside Erika Kirk at Turning Point USA’s America Fest. She then picked a fight with California Gov. Gavin Newsom over his supportive comments about trans children. It’s important to note that the majority of Nicki’s fanbase is made up of queer folk, specifically gay men. To blatantly go against the very community that has long supported her marks a turning point in her career. Newsom responded with a clip featuring images of Trump and notorious child trafficker Jeffrey Epstein soundtracked by Megan Thee Stallion’s “Hiss.” The specific portion of the audio used was a line dissing her husband’s status as a registered sex offender, a reference to “Megan’s Law.”
In January, she was finally seen directly next to her “hero,” Donald Trump. He introduced her as a funder of his new program, Trump Accounts, which encourages parents to enroll their children in a tax-advantaged investment program created by the Big Beautiful Bill. In her speech, she claimed she was Trump’s number one fan. “That’s not gonna change.”
Perhaps, it won’t. Similarly to Ye, whether this change is genuine or not, she will forever be scarred with a history of defending racists and conservatives, and by virtue, going against her own fanbase. While Jesy Nelson and her anti-vax tantrum might’ve had some wiggle room for her cult, the Barbz, to still back her, there is no hiding behind ambiguity now. Nicki has made a stance—a stance she’s been gearing up to make for half a decade.
