Rapper Nicki Minaj made an surprising look at Turning Level USA’S AmericaFest conference, the place she was interviewed by Erika Kirk, the widow of Charlie Kirk.
The Tremendous Bass rapper and Kirk, 37, walked out hand in hand earlier than sitting down for a dialog in Phoenix to shut the first-ever AmericaFest conference on Sunday.
CEO and Chair of the Board of Turning Level USA Erika Kirk (L) and US rapper Nicki Minaj arrive on stage throughout Turning Level’s annual AmericaFest convention in Phoenix, Arizona on December 21, 2025.
Olivier Touron / AFP through Getty Photos
The four-day convention introduced collectively media personalities, conservative activists and leaders from the Republican get together.
Throughout her time on the occasion, Minaj, 43, praised U.S. President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance, calling them “position fashions” for younger males.
“This administration is stuffed with folks with coronary heart and soul, and so they make me happy with them. Our vice-president, he makes me … effectively, I like each of them,” Minaj mentioned. “Each of them have a really uncanny skill to be somebody that you simply relate to.”
“Pricey younger males, you will have superb position fashions, like our good-looking, dashing president. And you’ve got superb position fashions just like the murderer, JD Vance, our vice-president,” Minaj mentioned to the group.
She shortly realized what phrase she used to reward Vance’s political abilities — “murderer” — and went silent as she coated her mouth together with her hand whereas the group murmured.
“If the web desires to clip it, who cares? I like this girl,” mentioned Erika Kirk, who grew to become a widow when Charlie Kirk was assassinated in September. “Belief me, there’s nothing new underneath the solar that I’ve not heard.”
“I like you,” Minaj mentioned to Kirk.
Minaj additionally mocked California Gov. Gavin Newsom, referring to him as “Newscum,” a nicknamed Trump gave him.
When Kirk requested Minaj to present recommendation to younger males, Minaj mentioned, “Don’t be Newscum.”
“For boys: boys, be boys… There’s nothing flawed with being a boy. How about that? How highly effective is that? How profound is that? Boys will probably be boys, and there’s nothing flawed with that,” she mentioned.
“Irrespective of the way you look, we must be attempting to instill into them to be happy with how they give the impression of being,” Minaj continued. “I don’t want somebody with blond hair and blue eyes to downplay their magnificence as a result of I do know my magnificence.”
She went on to criticize messaging that makes any group really feel like they don’t seem to be ok. “I don’t need it achieved to any ladies. I would like all of the little ladies on this planet to know that you’re distinctive, you’re lovely,” Minaj added.
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The Grammy-nominated rapper’s latest alignment with the Make America Nice Once more motion has caught some curiosity due to her previous criticism of Trump, together with in 2018 when she condemned Trump’s zero-tolerance immigration coverage and described herself as an “unlawful immigrant.”
On Sunday, Minaj advised the viewers: “It’s OK to vary your thoughts.”
“I’ve the utmost respect and admiration for our president,” the Starships rapper mentioned. “I don’t know if he even is aware of this, however he’s given so many individuals hope.”
Minaj mentioned she was bored with being “pushed round,” and he or she mentioned that talking your thoughts with totally different concepts is controversial as a result of “persons are not utilizing their minds.”
“I’ve one thing inside me that’s stronger than what’s on the market. So whenever you’ve had sufficient, you understand, ‘Wait a minute, why do I even care about these folks and what they assume? Who’re they?’ They don’t even know who they’re. So I’m not going to again down anymore. I’m not going to again down ever once more,” Minaj mentioned of her determination to assist Trump.
Kirk thanked Minaj for being “brave,” regardless of the “backlash” she’s receiving from the leisure business for expressing assist for Trump.
“I didn’t discover,” Minaj mentioned. “We don’t even take into consideration them.” Kirk then mentioned, “We don’t have time to. We’re too busy constructing, proper?”
“We’re the cool youngsters. The opposite folks, they’re the others which can be nonetheless simply disgruntled. They’re indignant with themselves,” Minaj mentioned. “In a world that doesn’t need us to assume, we are going to assume.”
CEO and Chair of the Board of Turning Level USA Erika Kirk (L) speaks with US rapper Nicki Minaj throughout Turning Level’s annual AmericaFest convention in Phoenix, Arizona on December 21, 2025.
Olivier Touron / AFP through Getty Photos
In response to a few of Minaj’s feedback, Vance took to X, writing, “Nicki Minaj mentioned one thing at Amfest that was actually profound. I’m paraphrasing, however she mentioned, ‘simply because I would like little black ladies to assume they’re lovely doesn’t imply I must put down little ladies with blonde hair and blue eyes.’”
“All of us received wrapped up over the previous couple of years in zero sum pondering. This was as a result of the individuals who assume they rule the world pit us towards each other. @NickiMinaj rejects that. All of us ought to,” he added.
Minaj made headlines final month when she spoke at a United Nations occasion organized by the U.S. after Trump’s allegations that Christians are persecuted in Nigeria.
Minaj mentioned that she wished to shine a highlight on “the lethal menace.”
She thanked Trump for his management and for calling for pressing motion “to defend Christians in Nigeria, to fight extremism and to convey a cease to violence towards those that merely need to train their pure proper to freedom of faith or perception.”
She spoke at a panel on the U.S. mission to the United Nations together with U.S. Ambassador Mike Waltz and religion leaders. The occasion got here after she replied to Trump’s social media put up about Nigeria earlier in November, saying, “”No group ought to ever be persecuted for training their faith.”
Minaj vowed to maintain standing up “within the face of injustice” for anybody anyplace who’s being persecuted for his or her beliefs.
“Sadly, this drawback will not be solely a rising drawback in Nigeria, but in addition in so many different international locations around the globe,” she mentioned.
Minaj mentioned she wished to clarify that defending Christians in Nigeria wasn’t about taking sides or dividing folks. “It’s about uniting folks,” she mentioned, calling Nigeria “a fantastic nation with deep religion traditions” that she will be able to’t wait to see.
—With information from The Related Press
