MAGA Barb: A Timeline Of Nicki Minaj's Political Turn To The Right

2012 – Nicki Minaj shows support for Obama.

Nicki Minaj appeared to support the Democratic Party in 2012, something that wasn’t immediately clear. The rapper threw fans for a curveball when she was heard rapping on Lil Wayne’s “Mercy,” calling herself a “Republican voting for Mitt Romney” during the presidential election.

Former President Barack Obama was the first to question the lyric, expressing scepticism during an interview with Orlando’s Power 95.3, according to NBC News.

“I’m not sure that’s actually what happened,” Obama told the hosts at the time. “I think she had a song on there, a little rap that said that, but she likes to play different characters.”

After much uproar, Minaj quickly took to X, telling fans that it was all a hoax. She also expressed her support for Obama.

“Ha! Thank you for understanding my creative humour & sarcasm, Mr President, the smart ones always do … sends love & support.” She added in a follow-up post: “Awesome! Now I can tell my grandchildren that the 1st black President of the United States took the time to address a Nicki Minaj question.”

2015 – Nicki Minaj calls Trump “hilarious.”

Nicki Minaj’s relationship with Donald Trump and the Trump Administration did not begin as a political alliance but evolved gradually through public remarks, cultural intersections, and later direct engagement with Trump-aligned messaging. During the early years of Trump’s rise in politics, Minaj expressed mixed and often critical views rather than support. In a 2015 interview with Billboard, she described Trump as “hilarious” and found his presidential bid amusing at the time. Notably, she said there were some political points the Republican made “that may not have been so horrible if his approach wasn’t so childish.” 

She added, “But in terms of entertainment — I think he’s hilarious. I wish they could just film him running for president. That’s the ultimate reality show.” At the time, her remarks reflected scepticism and distance from formal political alignment rather than approval of Trump’s agenda.

In that same interview, she also expressed support for Hillary Clinton, who was also running for president at the time.

“I support her as a woman,” Minaj told Billboard when asked about the Democrat. “Am I convinced that she should be the next president? I still want to be open-minded about everyone. Obviously, I identify with her struggles as a woman. I identify with the fact that when she’s in that room and there are nothing but men there — there’s sometimes something in her that must feel intimidated. But I think that she uses that and turns it into a strength. Because that’s what I’ve always done. And so I love her for sticking it out. She has gone through horrifying things, even within her marriage. She has been brave and weathered the storm. And continued being a boss. That’s something that every woman should feel inspired by, no matter if you’re voting for her or not.”

2018 – Nicki criticises Trump’s immigration policies.

Once Trump assumed office, Minaj publicly opposed several policies associated with his administration. In 2018, she criticised the Trump Administration’s family separation policy at the U.S.–Mexico border, referencing her own childhood immigration experience and condemning the treatment of migrant families. In her since-deleted Instagram post, the Trinidad and Tobago-born rapper wrote, according to PolitiFact, “I came to this country as an illegal immigrant @ 5 years old. I can’t imagine the horror of being in a strange place & having my parents stripped away from me at the age of 5. This is so scary to me. Please stop this.”

2020 – She said she wasn’t going to “jump on the Donald Trump (hate) bandwagon” during an interview.

Following the 2020 election, Minaj’s political posture became less predictable. In a February 2020 interview at the Pollstar Live conference, Minaj said she wasn’t going to “jump on the Donald Trump (hate) bandwagon,” when asked about the entrepreneur and his presidency at the time, according to Variety. 

“I don’t like that. I get a lot of people don’t like him for obvious reasons. But what stuck with me was the children being taken away from their parents when they came into this country; that really bothered me, because I was one of those immigrant children coming to America to flee poverty. And I couldn’t imagine a little child going through all of that, trying to get to another country because they didn’t have money in their country, or whether you’re fleeing from war,” she explained. “And then being taken away from the one person that makes you feel comfort — that really raised my eyebrows. I was like, something about this doesn’t sit right in my spirit. But, on ‘Celebrity Apprentice,’ I think he was funny as hell.”

2021 – The rapper shared misleading information about the COVID-19 vaccine.

A noticeable shift came in 2021, when she sparked widespread controversy by questioning COVID-19 vaccine safety on social media, claiming it made a friend of her cousin in Trinidad & Tobago have “swollen testicles.” Although these comments were not explicitly pro-Trump, they echoed scepticism commonly associated with conservative and Trump-aligned political circles. The situation drew national attention when the Biden White House confirmed it had reached out to offer Minaj a conversation with medical experts. Fact-checking organizations later emphasised that, despite online claims, Minaj had not endorsed Trump for reelection or publicly declared support for him during this period.

October 2025 – Kai Trump dances to “Beez in the Trap.”

Public perception of Minaj’s alignment shifted more noticeably in 2025, when she began directly engaging with Trump-aligned narratives,  administration messaging, and people closely aligned with the MAGA leader. 

In October, Trump’s granddaughter, Kai Trump, and a friend joined a TikTok trend using Nicki Minaj’s song “Beez in the Trap.” Minaj noticed Kai’s video and reposted it on her X account, drawing widespread attention. The President also began using the song in several videos posted to his social media accounts. 

November 2025 – Nicki Minaj praises Trump for defending Christians in Nigeria. She visited the U.N. to speak on the issue.

Her political alliance with the right came into focus in November, when she shared and praised a post from the Trump Administration for defending Christians against “extremism” in Nigeria. The star reposted Trump’s Truth Social post claiming that Christianity was “facing an existential threat in Nigeria” due to “radical Islamists.” Minaj later thanked Trump on X, writing that his words made her “feel a deep sense of gratitude.” 

She added, “We live in a country where we can freely worship God. No group should ever be persecuted for practising their religion. Thank you to the President & his team for taking this seriously. God bless every persecuted Christian. Let’s remember to lift them up in prayer.”

Conservative commentators and major media outlets interpreted the gesture as a clear departure from her earlier opposition, marking one of the first times Minaj explicitly expressed gratitude toward Trump in a policy context.

Around the same time, Minaj reacted positively to a White House TikTok video that used her music during the Trump Administration, reposting and celebrating the moment online. While seemingly lighthearted, the interaction reinforced her growing comfort with Trump-linked cultural visibility and further fueled speculation about her political sympathies. The response from fans was polarized, with some supporting her and others accusing her of aligning with conservative politics.

The most consequential moment in Minaj’s association with the Trump Administration came in November when she delivered a speech at the United Nations addressing religious violence in Nigeria. The appearance was facilitated by a U.S. ambassador, Mike Waltz, appointed during Trump’s administration, and during her remarks, Minaj explicitly thanked President Trump for prioritising religious freedom issues.

Minaj reportedly told the audience during her speech, “In Nigeria, Christians are being targeted…Churches have been burned, families have been torn apart…simply because of how they pray.”

Although she framed her speech as humanitarian rather than partisan, her participation was widely interpreted as an endorsement of a Trump Administration foreign policy priority, cementing her visible engagement with Trump-aligned political efforts, sparking backlash from fans. 

December 2025 – Nicki Minaj disses California Gov. Gavin Newsom on X.

Nicki Minaj seems to have crowned Gavin Newsom as her latest favorite target, though the California governor doesn’t seem quite as interested in trading blows online. Over the past few days, Minaj has fired off more than two dozen tweets criticising him, while Newsom’s only response so far has been sharing a Megan Thee Stallion diss track called “Hiss” that was originally aimed at Minaj, according to Billboard.

Minaj has fired off several X posts aimed at Newsom, with one recently calling the Democrat, “the cute boy who got everything handed to him b/c of how cute & sexy & hot & smoking he was.” She added: “He thinks he’s Tom Cruise only difference is, his next mission IS impossible. He should get another leading role.”

It’s unclear why Nicki Minaj is getting closer to the right, but only time will tell if there is a bigger motive at play. 

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