Nicki Minaj flew into Michigan on Air Force One, walked out in a gold Gucci suit, and opened her speech at a Donald Trump rally by chanting “We love Trump. We love Trump.”
The rapper joined the president on stage in Port Huron on Sunday evening, at an event held to boost Republican candidates ahead of the US midterm elections.
Trump introduced her as the “queen of rap” and praised her for being “with me from day one.” Minaj returned the warmth, telling the crowd she was “so honoured to be working with this president” and that “he represents resilience.”
So many people were maybe giving up a little bit, maybe a little bit hopeless,” she said. “And since he’s come back, he’s changed the energy of our country and given us a future to look forward to.”
The moment drawing the most attention came earlier in the night, though. After complimenting Ohio senator Jon Husted’s figure, Trump turned to Minaj in the audience and said, “By the way, I looked at a beautiful ass before. Nicki Minaj. That’s hard to miss.”
He signalled for her to stand up, then added, “I hope Nicki wasn’t insulted, but we love Nicki.” As she left the stage later on, he told the crowd, “She never looked more beautiful.”
None of this comes out of nowhere. Minaj has called herself the president’s “number one fan,” and back in January she backed his claim that Christians were being “targeted” in Nigeria, saying she was “probably the president’s biggest fan.
The rally carried far heavier material than a celebrity cameo. Trump went after the Democrats’ progressive Senate candidate Abdul el-Sayed, calling him a “jihadist” who was “on the side of the terrorists” and claiming he would “have to go through a metal detector before he’s allowed to go into the Senate.”
The candidate, who would become the nation’s first Muslim senator if elected, has called attacks on his loyalty “shameful.” He has repeatedly denied any links to extremist groups.
The pushback didn’t only come from Trump’s opponents. Bishara Bahbah, founder of Arab Americans for Trump and once a top Arab American ally of the president, sharply criticised him for questioning the candidate’s loyalty to the United States.
Trump also took aim at Norway, using a crude insult to describe the country and saying Norwegian immigrants weren’t welcome in the US “because I didn’t get the Nobel Prize.” The Nobel committee is based in Oslo.
Elsewhere, he predicted the trade dispute with Canada would be resolved “soon” without offering specifics.
He and other speakers repeated the line that higher tariffs on Canadian goods are necessary because Canada “has been ripping off” the US.
For Minaj, who is 43, this was her most public show of support yet, standing beside the president at a rally packed with some of his sharpest attacks of the campaign.
With the midterms still ahead, all eyes are on how her fans and her critics respond to this latest step.
