ByConor Murray,
Forbes Staff.
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.
Minaj, who became an open Trump supporter in late 2025 and has since appeared with the president on multiple occasions, told Time she had identified with Trump for a while, but “didn’t dare act like that publicly” because Democratic politics are “ingrained in everyone’s brain in the music business.”
An early incident that pushed Minaj rightward was when her Los Angeles mansion was targeted by multiple swatting calls between 2022 and 2023, prompting her to request a meeting with Newsom, whom she alleged “completely ignored me, with all the money I pay in taxes.”
