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Former MSNBC/MS NOW 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.
“There’s a reason that the other side is giddy about having Nicki Minaj, a rapper they despise, a rapper they don’t respect, a rapper most of them probably have never heard one of her songs, and if they have, they’re horrified,” Reid said.
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Conservative activists appeared stunned by former MS NOW host Joy Reid’s candid opinion on how she would feel about seeing a penis in a female locker room. (Arturo Holmes/Getty)
“The reason they want her on a leash as their house pet cuddled at Donald Trump’s feet, the reason she is the new house pet is because they need, N-E-E-E-D [sic] Black people to give them ‘cultural cool.’ Black ‘cultural cool’ has always been a powerful, powerful element in the country.”
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.
“Their next gambit,” Reid said, “is to get the Trinidadian who doesn’t care about the killing of Trinidadian fishermen, the female rapper who hates other female rappers, who hates on women who are more popular than her, Cardi B.
“She’ll never be Rihanna. She’ll never have a brand like Rihanna. She’ll never be Beyoncé. She’s a 40-some year-old, Black female rapper who clearly don’t care that much about Black people or immigrants, even though she was an undocumented immigrant.
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Nicki Minaj joins President Donald Trump on stage as he delivers remarks during the Treasury Department’s Trump Accounts Summit at Andrew W. Mellon Auditorium Jan. 28, 2026, in Washington, D.C. (Win McNamee/Getty Images)
“They wouldn’t want her if they didn’t need cultural cool. Their problem is she ain’t cultural cool no more. So the Barbs, you know, you know Nikki ain’t s— and she ain’t saying nothing. And a 100 little Barbs can’t tell me nothing. Y’all mad about it, be mad about it,” Reid said.
“But she not gonna work. But they’re going to keep looking for somebody Black to be the face, to put blackface on MAGA, and they know that ‘cultural cool’ matters, that’s why they’re doing it.”
Digital has reached out Minaj and the White House for comment and did not receive an immediate response.
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Rapper Nicki Minaj recently put out a public prayer, asking God to save over 300 Nigerian Christians recently kidnapped from a school in Nigeria. (Derek White/Getty)
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