Desperate Donald Trump has sent Nicki Minaj onto his favorite TV channel to urge young Americans to vote for his party in the midterms—even though the famous rapper cannot do it herself.
Having previously criticized Trump, Minaj, 43, has become one of the 80-year-old president’s most prominent celebrity supporters after publicly embracing MAGA last year and calling herself his “number one fan.”
The Trinidad-born rapper is not an American citizen, and although she has said she is “finalizing” her citizenship paperwork, she is not permitted to vote. But with his midterm prospects looking bleaker by the day, Trump is leaning on Minaj’s fame to appeal to young voters ahead of the Nov. 3 elections.
“Now is not the time to think that your voice will not be heard,” Minaj told the president’s daughter-in-law Lara Trump in an interview on Fox News’ My View with Lara Trump. “Your voice will not only be heard, but your voice is very necessary right now for the country and for the world.”
She urged viewers to participate beyond presidential elections, telling them to consider how much influence they wanted over their country and adding: “Please, and vote red now.”
Minaj also used the interview to heap praise on Trump, describing him as “a very authentic person” and saying: “I’ve made it my mission to be someone that supports him.”
While her Fox appearance was boosted by fellow Trump acolyte Florida Gov. hopeful Byron Donalds, many social media users did not miss the irony of her non-voting status. One said: “She’s not even an American so she should have no business in our elections!”
Others pointed out that Minaj was an interesting flag bearer for a party—the GOP—that prides itself on law and order and family values, as her brother was convicted in 2020 of raping a child and her husband was found guilty in 1995 of an attempted rape.
Trump has been accused by at least 28 women of sexual misconduct, including by writer E. Jean Carroll, whose sexual abuse claims a New York jury found credible. The president has denied all of the allegations of assault or harassment, calling them “unequivocally false.”
Minaj’s increasingly prominent role in Trumpworld follows a dramatic political transformation, after she publicly criticized Trump’s immigration policies during his first term.
In 2018, amid outrage over the separation of migrant families at the southern border, she revealed that she had arrived in the U.S. from Trinidad and Tobago as a child, an undocumented 5-year-old, and said she could not imagine the “horror” of being separated from her parents, adding: “Please stop this.”
However, in 2025, she publicly emerged as a Trump supporter and appeared alongside Turning Point USA CEO Erika Kirk at the conservative group’s AmericaFest last December.
Minaj has since made clear she intends to use her celebrity to help Trump politically. In May, she said she had privately supported him before going public and had feared alienating parts of her fanbase. She also said she would “do whatever it is” Trump asked her to do to support Republicans in the midterms, the Daily Beast reported.
She subsequently appeared with Trump at his Trump Accounts Summit in Washington in January, where the pair held hands onstage and Minaj declared: “I am probably the president’s number one fan and that’s not going to change,” as the Beast reported. The pair also filmed a TikTok together in which Minaj called Trump “the best president of all time,” while Trump introduced her as “the queen of rap.”
However, the rapper said during a 2024 TikTok livestream: “I’m not a citizen of America. Isn’t that crazy?” Only U.S. citizens can vote in federal elections.
In January, Minaj posted an image of what appeared to be a Trump Gold Card and said she was “finalizing” her citizenship paperwork. But the card was merely a souvenir rather than an immigration document, a White House official later said, while a Department of Homeland Security official said Minaj had already held permanent legal residency for roughly two decades, the Daily Beast reported.
The Daily Beast has contacted representatives for Minaj, the White House and Fox News for comment.
