Nicki Minaj wears a yellow dress and white fur coat. She stands with Donald Trump, who wears a suit.

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Nicki Minaj Once Called Donald Trump ‘Childish,’ Said It Was ‘Obvious’ Why People Disliked Him

Before Nicki Minaj threw her support behind Donald Trump, she was more critical of him. Here's what she once said about him.

by Emma McKee

Published on February 4, 2026

2 min read

Nicki Minaj once described Donald Trump as ‘childish’

Minaj has recently rebranded as “the president’s No. 1 fan,” as she said at the Trump Accounts Summit. This was not always the case, though. Ahead of Trump’s first term, she was far more critical of him. While she admitted she found him funny on The Apprentice, she found his brash approach to politics less tasteful.

“There are points he has made that may not have been so horrible if his approach wasn’t so childish,” she told Billboard.

In another interview, she said she had no intention of ever supporting Trump.

“I’m not gonna jump on the Donald Trump bandwagon,” she told Rolling Stone, adding, “I don’t like that. I get that a lot of people don’t like him for obvious reasons.”

She described the policy she could not support

Minaj, who came to the United States from Trinidad, said Trump’s immigration policies were a major reason why she couldn’t support him.

“[W]hat stuck with me was the children being taken away from their parents when they came into this country,” she said. “That really bothered me because I was one of those immigrant children coming to America to flee poverty. And I couldn’t imagine a little child going through all of that, trying to get to another country because they didn’t have money in their country, or whether you’re fleeing from war … and then being taken away from the one person that makes you feel comfort.”

She said this made her question Trump more than anything.

“That is what really raised my eyebrows,” she said. “That is what made me go, ‘Something about this doesn’t sit right in my spirit.’”

She noted that she preferred him on reality television.

Nicki Minaj now believes Donald Trump has faced ‘bullying’

Minaj has recently wholeheartedly embraced conservative politics. On social media, she has discouraged people from voting for Democratic candidates and praised Trump. She said she embraced politics after seeing the way people treated Trump.

“Religious freedom is something that’s very important to me, but if I’m being honest, President Trump … when I saw how he was being treated, over and over and over, I just couldn’t handle it,” she said on The Katie Miller Podcast, which is hosted by United States Homeland Security Advisor Stephen Miller’s wife (via Billboard).

She believes Trump was the target of an online smear campaign, leading her to empathize with him.

“I felt that a lot of that bullying and the smear campaigns and all of the lying, I felt that that had been done to me for so many years,” she said. “And I was watching it in real time happen to someone else, and I didn’t think he deserved it.”