Remember when Nicki Minaj was posting about the “terror and panic” immigrant children felt when Trump’s administration ripped them from their families at the border?
Remember when she called herself an “illegal immigrant” who arrived in America at age 5, clearly positioning herself against Trump’s deportation machine?
Well, that Nicki is gone. The new Nicki thinks Trump is “handsome” and “dashing” and makes her “proud.”
WHAT’S GOING ON: The rapper appeared at Turning Point USA’s AmericaFest 2026 summit on Sunday, joining Charlie Kirk’s widow Erika Kirk for a cozy chat about her newfound love for the Trump-Vance administration.
By Wednesday, her Instagram account—with its massive following—was deactivated amid the overwhelming backlash from fans.
THE DETAILS: Minaj, 43, told the AmericaFest crowd that “this administration is full of people with heart and soul.” She gushed that both Trump and Vance “have a very uncanny ability to be someone that you relate to.” (SURPRISE: billionaire authoritarian and his venture capitalist sidekick are totally relatable!)
When Kirk thanked her for being “courageous” despite entertainment industry criticism, Minaj replied, “I didn’t notice. We don’t even think about them.” Then came the chef’s kiss: “We’re the cool kids.”
OF COURSE: Fans weren’t buying what she was selling. “If you needed money this badly, you should have just said that,” one wrote on X. “Your career is done,” insisted another. “You picked the wrong side!” This isn’t even her first Instagram rage-quit—she did the same thing in October.
BUT BUT BUT: The whiplash here is genuinely stunning. This is the same artist who once sang “Island girl, Donald Trump want me go home” as a direct shot at his anti-immigrant rhetoric. In 2018, she was sharing her personal immigration story to condemn his family separation policy, writing “Please stop this” about children being torn from their parents.
Now she’s on stage with the leadership of the organization founded to advance that exact agenda, calling the architects of mass deportation “people with heart and soul.”
WHY IT MATTERS: Celebrity defections to MAGA aren’t new, but they serve a purpose for the right: normalizing fascism by wrapping it in cultural credibility.
Turning Point USA doesn’t book Nicki Minaj because they love “Super Bass”—they book her because she can reach audiences they can’t.
BOTTOM LINE: Minaj said people criticizing different ideas is controversial because “people are no longer using their minds.” But her fans seem to be using their minds just fine. They remember 2018 Nicki. They’re watching the receipts pile up. And millions of them have apparently decided they’ve seen enough.