Nicki Minaj Reveals Why She Came Out as MAGA, Says Jay-Z Hurt Obama’s Legacy

Rapper Nicki Minaj explained her surprising rightward political shift in an interview with Time, outlining a variety of reasons she became a public supporter of President Donald Trump and laying blame on Democratic figures like California Gov. Gavin Newsom and former President Barack Obama for alienating her.

via: Variety

After publicly supporting Donald Trump and the Republican Party in recent months, Nicki Minaj is opening up about why she became vocal in her support for the President.

During an interview with Time, Minaj says a major reason that she was turned off to Democrats was that after her home was “swatted” several times after trolls would call the police and trigger outsized responses, she requested time to sit down with Governor Gavin Newsom, who allegedly didn’t reply.

“He just completely ignored me, with all the money I spent in taxes,” she says.

In 2025, Republican congresswoman Anna Paulina Luna offered assistance to Minaj, and it solidified the interest she had in the Republican party. She even considered taking her support public.

“I was shocked,” Minaj says of the response to her swatting. “I’d never seen anyone in politics treat me that way. That’s what made me say that I don’t care to keep this a secret anymore.”

Minaj says she initially declined to speak out as she didn’t want to split her fanbase.

“I felt that way already about him, just that I didn’t dare act like that publicly,” Minaj says. “It’s been ingrained in everyone’s brain in the music business that we are supposed to be a Democratic family. I just knew they would not like me supporting Trump.”

Minaj also says rap rival Jay-Z was involved in her ideological shifts.

“I think Jay-Z ended up costing Obama a lot, whether he knows it or not,” she says. “Lots of rappers don’t like Jay-Z and were afraid to say it.”

Jay-Z and President Obama have shown a public-facing friendship through the years, from Obama inducting Jay-Z into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2021 to Jay-Z campaigning for Obama.

Minaj also says that a 2024 speech Obama gave supporting Kamala Harris, which encouraged Black men to vote for a woman president, pushed her further away from the Democratic Party.

“I just saw so many videos of Black men saying that they didn’t like the way they felt about that speech that Obama gave,” she says. “They felt like they weren’t being listened to.”

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MAGAt Minaj is a whole fool. So you vote for a fascist because you couldn't get a Californian zionist to prevent your house from being swatted. Meanwhile she has made a career using her fans to harass anyone that says anything remotely negative about her. That's why you voted for Trump. Because you're a thin-skinned narcissist just like him. The sad part about all of this is that the man you are currently supporting have put policies in place that have affected the very fans you were afraid to alienate