Mumbai: Nicki Minaj joined United States President Donald Trump at a Republican rally in Michigan on 25 October, promising to support him “forever and ever”. The rapper, who had criticised Trump during his first term, has become one of his most vocal celebrity supporters in recent months.
Minaj travelled with Trump on Air Force One before joining him on stage in Port Huron. The rally was held ahead of the 3 November midterm elections, and she urged people to vote for Republican candidates Mike Rogers and John James.
Trump introduced her as the “queen of rap,” joking that he did not like being overshadowed by her. Minaj then got the crowd chanting “We love Trump” before speaking about her support for the president.
“I am so honoured to be working with this president. He represents resilience,” she said. She told the crowd that Trump had changed the country’s energy and given people something to look forward to.
She ended her speech by promising Trump that she would continue to support him.
“President Trump, it is an honour to stand with you every single time. And I will continue to support you forever and ever. If you run again, I will support you again,” Minaj said.
The President while speaking about the rapper also commented on her appearance.
“By the way, I looked at one hell of a beautiful a** before — Nicki Minaj,” Trump said, before asking Minaj to stand up, adding, “That’s hard to miss.”
The remark drew cheers from the audience. Trump later apologised, saying: “I hope Nicki wasn’t insulted, but we love Nicki. She’s been with us for a long time.”
Adversary to ally
Minaj wasn’t always a Trump supporter. In 2018, during his first term, she criticised his administration’s policy of separating migrant children from their parents at the US border.
“I came to this country as an illegal immigrant @ 5 years old,” she wrote on Instagram at the time. She said she could not imagine being separated from her parents and asked for the practice to stop. The post has since been deleted.
Her support for Trump became more public toward the end of 2025. In November, she appeared at a United Nations event alongside Trump’s ambassador Mike Waltz, where she spoke about attacks on Christians in Nigeria and thanked the president for drawing attention to the issue.
By January this year, she was calling herself Trump’s “number one fan”. The rapper then joined him at a White House event for Trump Accounts, a government-backed savings programme for children, and said criticism of Trump only made her want to support him more.
In a May interview with Time magazine, Minaj spoke about her growing support for Republicans. She said she had felt closer to Trump’s politics for some time but had been afraid to say so publicly because of how people in the music industry might react.
(Edited by Insha Jalil Waziri)