Nicki Minaj built a career alongside an audience that included some of her loudest and most devoted supporters: LGBTQ+ fans who treated her music, aesthetics, and larger-than-life persona as part of the queer cultural landscape. She leaned into that relationship for years, from Pride performances to moments where she publicly framed herself as someone paying attention to women’s rights, LGBTQ+ rights, and freedom of expression.
That history is what makes her political turn sting for many of the people who helped elevate her into “queen” status in the first place. Over time, Minaj has increasingly used her platform to praise President Donald Trump and Vice President J.D. Vance, amplify administration messaging, and take aim at Democrats. For LGBTQ+ fans who once saw her as a pop figure willing to stand alongside them, the shift has felt deeply personal.
Minaj’s public relationship to Trump and politics has never followed a straight line. In early footage from 2010, she invoked Trump’s celebrity persona while making a point about gender and power. In 2012, she leaned into political provocation in her music, rapping, “I’m a Republican voting for Mitt Romney,” then later responding after President Obama dismissed it as performance: “Thank you for understanding my creative humor & sarcasm Mr. President.”
Even when she criticized early Trump-era policies, Minaj sometimes framed Trump as spectacle rather than threat. At a 2020 conference, she said she was “not gonna jump on the Donald Trump bandwagon,” pointing to the family separation policy at the southern border. “I don’t like that,” she said. “But what stuck with me was the children being taken away from their parents when they came into this country.”
At the same time, Minaj continued gestures that aligned with LGBTQ+ fans’ expectations. In 2019, she reflected warmly on her first Pride concert, tweeting that she did her “1st pride concert in ATL” and “I’ll never, EVER get over it,” calling the energy “epic.” That same year, she canceled a planned festival appearance in Saudi Arabia, saying she wanted to make clear her support “for the rights of women, the LGBTQ community and freedom of expression.”
Then came the vaccine controversy and a broader drift into right-wing grievance politics. In 2021, Minaj shared a claim about a friend of a cousin having severe side effects from a COVID vaccine, a story Trinidad and Tobago’s health minister publicly refuted. Dr. Anthony Fauci also said there was “no evidence” to support it. Minaj later defended her approach as personal independence. “I like to make my own assessment of everything,” she said.
By late 2025, her politics were no longer ambiguous. Minaj reposted an official White House TikTok highlighting Trump administration “achievements,” including messaging attacking trans inclusion in sports, and escalated into direct attacks on Democratic leaders. After she mocked California Gov. Gavin Newsom over comments about trans kids, backlash followed quickly, including from Kim Petras, who posted on X: “trans kids r healthy btw.”
The response also moved beyond criticism. An online petition calling for Minaj’s deportation has circulated widely, reflecting the depth of rupture among former fans who saw her alignment with Trump as a line crossed.
Minaj also directed her frustration at LGBTQ+ fans who criticized her after she shared Trump administration posts about violence against Christians in Nigeria. The posts echoed Trump’s claims that Christians were being targeted, an interpretation experts have said oversimplifies a complex situation. In response, Minaj wrote, “Imagine hearing that Christians are being MURDERED & making it about you being gay.”
The shift from online posting to in-person political theater followed soon after. In December, Minaj made a surprise appearance at Turning Point USA’s AmericaFest for a Q&A with Erika Kirk. “I have the utmost respect and admiration for our president,” Minaj said, adding that Trump had given people hope “to beat the bad guys, and to win.” She also delivered a line many heard as a signal about gender and trans youth: “Boys, be boys… It’s okay, be boys. There’s nothing wrong with being a boy.”
Minaj deactivated her Instagram account days after the AmericaFest appearance. For LGBTQ+ fans, this moment is not about backlash or celebrity drama. It is about the betrayal of a once vocal ally lending her influence to Trump and the MAGA movement, and the realization that the relationship many fans thought was mutual was never as secure as it felt.