Nicki Minaj and Donald Trump’s growing political connection was back in the spotlight on Wednesday, Feb. 18, when the president publicly praised the rapper during a speech at the White House.
Source: Win McNamee / Getty
While addressing attendees at a Black History Month celebration in Washington, D.C., Trump showered the rapper with compliments, applauding both her looks and her political prowess.
“How about Nicki Minaj? Do we love Nicki Minaj? I love Nicki Minaj. She was here a couple weeks ago. She’s so beautiful, her skin is so beautiful,” Trump gushed. “I said, ‘Nicki, you’re so beautiful.’ Her nails are like that long, I said, ‘Nicki are they real?’ She didn’t want to get into that. But she was so beautiful and so great and she gets it, more importantly.”
Earlier in the week, Minaj marked Presidents’ Day on Monday by sharing an AI-created image on social media that showed her cruising in a convertible with Trump while counting cash. The Queens native also appeared at the Trump-supported World Liberty Forum on Wednesday, where she served as a keynote speaker for a panel titled “Owning the Culture: The Business of Music in a Creator-Led Economy.”
Minaj first met Trump in January at the Trump Accounts Summit in Washington, D.C. During the event, she stood beside him and openly declared herself his biggest supporter.
“I am probably the president’s No. 1 fan,” Minaj said. “And that’s not going to change. What people have to say, it does not affect me at all. It actually motivates me to support him more. And it’s going to motivate all of us to support him more.”
She added: “We’re not going to let them get away with bullying him. And you know, the smear campaigns. It’s not going to work. He has a lot of force behind him and God is protecting him.”
In recent months, Minaj has made her backing of Trump and his administration her entire personality. She reinforced that stance during a February interview with right-wing podcaster Katie Miller, explaining that the criticism directed at Trump pushed her to speak up more forcefully on his behalf.
“Religious freedom is something that’s very important to me, but if I’m being honest, President Trump,” she said. “When I saw how he was being treated, over and over and over, I just couldn’t handle it.”
