Nicky Minaj collaborated with Latino artists. Now she supports Trump

Last week, rapper Nicki Minaj was the guest speaker at the last day of Turning Point’s “AmericaFest” (TPUSA) conference that took place in Phoenix, Arizona. 

Today, a petition is circulating, already signed by over 18,000 people, calling for U.S. immigration authorities to review Minaj's residency status in the United States. The Change.org petition also calls for her deportation to her home country, Trinidad and Tobago, as a “response to her harmful rhetoric.”

Background 

The 43-year-old, Grammy-nominated artist, who has collaborated on songs with Latino artists including Karol G, Farruko, Bad Bunny, Romeo Santos, Anuel AA and Maluma, among others, said she was honored to attend the conservative conference founded by Charlie Kirk, who was killed earlier in September. 

Minaj sat on stage with Kirk’s wife, Erika Kirk, who took over as chief executive officer of TPUSA, addressing over 30,000 people, the majority of whom were youth. 

She began her time in the conference by rereading old tweets she wrote attacking California Governor Gavin Newsom, whom she referred to as “Newsscum.”

“Imagine being the guy running on wanting to see trans kids. Haha. Not even a trans ADULT would run on that. Normal adults wake up and think they want to see HEALTHY, SAFE, HAPPY kids,” is one of the tweets Minaj read out loud in the conference. 

The sentence that followed was in support of President Donald Trump. “I have the utmost respect and admiration for our president,” she said. “He has given so many people hope to beat the bad guys and to win and do it with your head held high and your integrity intact.” 

Minaj, who has been nominated for 12 Grammys and is known for her savvy and her rapid-fire rap, addressed the thousands of youth present at the event, saying they had people to look up to in the administration, politically leading the U.S.

“Dear young men, you have amazing role models like our handsome, dashing president and you have amazing role models like the assassin JD Vance, our vice president,” she said. 

Minaj, who in 2020 was a guest judge on the season 12 premiere of “RuPaul’s Drag Race,” touched on gender identity, making controversial remarks during Sunday’s conference. “If you are born a boy, be a boy,” she said. “It’s OK. Be boys. There’s nothing wrong with being a boy. How powerful is that? How profound is that? Boys will be boys and there’s nothing wrong with that.”

After these remarks, she received major criticism, much of that coming from her own fan base known as “the Barbz.” 

She has now deleted her Instagram account after losing more than 10  million followers in the last few days. 

In the past, Minaj publicly talked about her own journey as an immigrant and her journey of moving to Queens, New York, when she was five years old. 

In 2018, Minaj condemned Trump’s zero-tolerance immigration policy in an Instagram post. 

“Please stop this. Can you try to imagine the terror & panic these kids feel right now?” she wrote in the post. 

Six years later, as part of the almost 30-minute interview, Minaj told attendees, “It’s OK to change your mind.”

Petition

The petition argues that many of her fans who once sought comfort and solace in her music feel deeply betrayed by her statements at the TPUSA conference. Many of those fans are Latinos, a group that has been disproportionately targeted by the recent U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids, hitting Los Angeles, Chicago, Atlanta, Houston and New York, among other cities. 

Despite touching on “American values,” Christianity, faith, education, gender and identity, Minaj made no statement about the raids during her time on stage.   

“This is personal for those of us who watched Nicki rise as a beacon of hope, only to feel abandoned by her shift in values,” the petition states. “Her public platform carries weight and responsibility and her recent statements are a stark contrast to the solidarity she once showed, leaving many feeling deflated and disillusioned.”