Nicki Minaj attended a White House Rose Garden luncheon, where President Donald Trump introduced her with warm remarks before a gathered crowd. Trump, 80, called her “a fantastic person” and praised what he described as her talent and her embrace of “common sense” over conservative politics. Minaj, 43, later shared moments from the day on social media, tagging her posts with the hashtag “#WhiteHouseBarbie.”
According to People, Trump said: “We also have a woman that is so respected and so hot and so great and such a great friend of, I don’t say conservative, I say of common sense. She’s a fantastic person and she’s a woman that’s respected by everybody and she’s got real talent: Nicki Minaj.”
Trump also mentioned her again when discussing the Small Business Administration, saying, “They call it small business, Nicki, but when you add it up, it’s bigger than any bank in the world, probably, right?” On social media, Minaj posted a clip of herself posing with the autopen picture Trump had hung in the White House in place of former President Joe Biden’s portrait, according to People.
Minaj’s rightward shift was inspired by several incidents, including a Gavin Newsom rejection
According to a Time interview, Minaj said she had identified with Trump for some time but “didn’t dare act like that publicly” because, in her words, Democratic politics are “ingrained in everyone’s brain in the music business.”
She said several events pushed her toward openly supporting Trump, beginning with a series of swatting incidents at her Los Angeles mansion between 2022 and 2023. She claimed she requested a meeting with California Governor Gavin Newsom for help, but alleged he “completely ignored me, with all the money I pay in taxes.”
After another swatting incident in April 2025, Republican Representative Anna Paulina Luna reportedly connected Minaj with law enforcement and private security. Minaj told Time she had “never seen anyone in politics treat me that way,” and said that experience helped encourage her to go public with her support for Trump.
Minaj also told Time she found a speech former President Barack Obama gave at a 2024 campaign rally for then-Vice President Kamala Harris to be condescending, specifically, remarks Obama made suggesting some Black men were reluctant to vote for a woman. She cited that moment as another factor in her growing distance from Democratic politics. A similar dispute arose when Obama admitted he has been selective in criticizing Trump for a specific reason.
She also blamed music mogul Jay-Z, whose Roc Nation entertainment company she has long accused of attempting to sabotage her career, saying his closeness with Obama “ended up costing Obama a lot, whether he knows it or not.” She claimed, “Lots of rappers don’t like Jay-Z and were afraid to say it.” Roc Nation has not publicly responded to those claims.
Minaj’s first public appearance with Trump administration officials came in November 2025, when she spoke alongside U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Mike Waltz about violence against Christians in Nigeria.
She opened that speech by saying, “I would like to thank President Trump for prioritizing this issue and his leadership on the global stage in calling for urgent action to defend Christians in Nigeria and to combat extremism and to bring a stop to violence against those who simply want to express their natural right to freedom of religion or belief.”
Some experts, however, have pushed back on framing the Nigeria conflict as specifically targeting Christians, noting that other religious and ethnic groups face violence at similar rates, according to Forbes.
In January 2026, Minaj appeared at Trump’s Trump Accounts Summit in Washington, D.C., where she told the crowd: “I am probably the president’s No. 1 fan, and that’s not going to change. The hate, or what people have to say, it does not affect me at all. It actually motivates me to support him more.”
She added, “We’re not going to let them get away with bullying him. He has a lot of force behind him, and God is protecting him. Amen?” In another case, Nicki Minaj publicly thanked Elon Musk for saving free speech on his birthday.
Minaj has also publicly supported Trump’s Gold Card immigration program, which, according to its official website, requires applicants to pay a nonrefundable $15,000 processing fee and provide a $1 million contribution as evidence of benefit to the United States.
After appearing to receive a Gold Card, Minaj wrote on social media: “Finalizing that citizenship paperwork as we speak as per MY wonderful, gracious, charming President. Thanks to the petition. I wouldn’t have done it without you. Oh CitizenNIKA you are thee moment. Gold Trump card free of charge.”
She told Time she would campaign for Republicans in the upcoming midterm elections if asked, and suggested she could be a “catalyst” for other celebrities to publicly support Trump, saying, “Many celebrities feel the way I do, but they don’t say it. Sometimes you just need one brave person to get the brunt of the impact.”
Published: Jul 7, 2026 11:30 am