Former MSNBC host Joy Reid launched multiple racially-charged insults at rapper Nicki Minaj for cozying up to President Donald Trump.
Minaj, who has condemned cancel culture and aligned with the Trump administration on issues like stopping the killings of Christians in Nigeria, has been blasted by liberal public figures. On a segment of “The Don Lemon Show,” Reid offered a theory about why the Republican Party, with conspicuously few friends in the entertainment industry, has gotten so friendly with the rapper.
The attack comes just days after Trump posted and deleted a racist video depicting Barack and Michelle Obama as apes. Trump refused to apologize for the February 6 post, claiming a staffer made the error. After mentioning other examples of Black cultural icons who have been publicly friendly with the Republican Party in recent years, Reid offered a unique critique of Minaj. Nicki Minaj fired back then, calling Reid “thirsty to down another black woman” and accusing her of being an “uncle tomiana doing the work” for white men.
Reid called the 42-year-old rapper a “Black female rapper who clearly don’t care that much about Black people or immigrants, even though she was an undocumented immigrant.”
Nicki Minaj’s political transformation has been dramatic. In 2020, she said she wouldn’t “jump on the Trump bandwagon” after criticizing his immigration policies. By 2025, Nicki Minaj became one of Trump’s most vocal celebrity supporters. She called herself Trump’s “number one fan” at a Treasury Department summit in January.