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Nicki Minaj Explains Her Turn to Trump in Time Interview

She says help from a Republican lawmaker after swatting at her home changed her calculus.

Overview

  • Minaj, in a Time interview published Wednesday at Mar-a-Lago, said she had long backed President Donald Trump in private but kept quiet for fear of backlash in a music business she views as uniformly Democratic.
  • She tied going public to repeated “swatting” at her Los Angeles home in 2022–2025, saying Gov. Gavin Newsom ignored her request for a meeting before Rep. Anna Paulina Luna later connected her with federal agents and private security; swatting is when hoax emergency calls send police to a target’s address.
  • She criticized Barack Obama’s 2024 campaign remarks about some Black men and pointed to a long feud with Jay-Z and what she calls Roc Nation’s gatekeeping as reasons she lost faith in Democrats.
  • Her support has since been highly visible, including Turning Point USA’s AmericaFest in December 2025 and the Trump Accounts Summit in January 2026, where she called herself the president’s “No. 1 fan,” and she told Time she is willing to help Republicans in the midterms if asked.
  • Reaction has been polarized online, with fans questioning her motives and some commentators offering unproven pardon theories, while her debunked 2021 vaccine claim has resurfaced in coverage of her credibility.