Nicki Minaj Talks Embracing MAGA, Says Jay-Z Cost Obama ‘a Lot’

In an interview with Eric Cortellessa for Time, Nicki Minaj spoke about her embrace of Donald Trump and suggested that Jay-Z’s friendship with former President Barack Obama cost him “a lot.”

Throughout her career, Minaj has often hinted that she leans conservative, but until Trump’s second term, she mostly kept her politics to herself. Speaking with Cortellessa at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort, she admitted that she was disappointed by Obama and never felt comfortable with the assertion that Black celebrities would and should vote for the Democratic presidential candidate. But in discussing her growing disillusionment with the party, she also criticized Obama’s friendship with Jay-Z, with whom she has famously feuded.

“I think Jay-Z ended up costing Obama a lot, whether he knows it or not,” she said. “Lots of rappers don’t like Jay-Z and were afraid to say it.” Jay-Z supported Obama’s presidential campaign in 2008 and participated in his 2012 re-election campaign. He also supported Hillary Clinton during the 2016 presidential election and has been critical of Trump.

Minaj has accused Jay-Z’s Roc Nation of attempting to sabotage her career, and alleged that he owes her somewhere between $100 to $200 million.

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Elsewhere in the interview, she implied one of the incidents that led to her public support of the Republican party was when she was criticized for sharing COVID-19 vaccine skepticism on social media. In 2021, she suggested that her cousin in Trinidad had “swollen testicles” after taking the vaccine. Despite the assertion, Trinidad and Tobago’s Health Minister, Terrence Deyalsingh, held a press conference to assert there was no evidence the vaccine could cause swelling in the testicles.

“I guess they had examined everyone’s testicles in Trinidad and came back to tell me that I was lying,” she said. Before that, however, she had started to drift closer to conservatism and publicly endorsing Trump, but she remained quiet until recently. “I felt that way already about him, just that I didn’t dare act like that publicly,” she added. “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.”

Several swatting incidents at her home in Los Angeles, which remain unsolved, also inspired her to publicly support Trump. When she put out a plea with California Governor Gavin Newsom to offer her some help solving the repeated swatting attacks, he never responded. When another incident happened in April 2025, however, Florida congresswoman Anna Paulina Luna reached out to offer her some help.

“I was shocked,” Minaj said “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.”