Nicki Minaj, who revealed in 2018 that she was brought to the United States as an “illegal immigrant” from Trinidad and Tobago when she was 5, showed off a Trump gold card on Wednesday after an event formally launching the president's IRA-style children's savings accounts. His citizenship process, he said on social media, was being finalized.
“Residency? Residency? The situation is the situation… Finalizing citizenship paperwork as we speak according to MY wonderful, kind, charming president,” the “Bang Bang” rapper, 43, wrote Wednesday on X, including a photo of the Chucky character shaking his middle finger. “Thanks to the petition… I wouldn't have done it without you. Oh, CitizenNIKA, it's your moment. Free Trump gold card.”
That post mentioning the card, which grants citizenship in the United States to those who pay $1 million, may have referenced multiple petitions arguing that the rapper (whose real name is Onika Tanya Maraj-Petty) should be deported to Trinidad and Tobago, where she was born before growing up in Queens, New York. A previous post contained a photo of the gold card and the single word “Good…”
“I came to this country as an illegal immigrant at age 5,” the rapper wrote on Facebook in 2018, posting a photo from the “zero tolerance” immigration enforcement period of the first Trump administration when migrant children were separated from their migrant parents at the country’s southern border.
The photo showed children on mats padded with silver Mylar thermal blankets, surrounded by a chain-link fence. “I can't imagine the horror of being in a strange place and having my parents taken away from me at the age of 5. This scares me so much. Please stop this. Can you try to imagine the terror and panic these children are feeling right now?”
In 2020, she said in an interview with Rolling Stone that she thought Trump was “very funny” on “Celebrity Apprentice,” but that she was bothered by images of children taken of their parents.
President Trump speaks with rapper Nicki Minaj in Washington, DC, on Wednesday at a launch event for the Trump Accounts savings and investment program for children.
(José Luis Magaña / Associated Press)
“I was one of those immigrant kids who came to the United States to escape poverty,” Minaj told the outlet. “And I couldn't imagine a little kid going through all that, trying to get to another country because they didn't have money in their country, or if you're fleeing war… and then being taken away from the only person who makes you feel comfortable. That's what really stood out to me.”
At the time, he said he would not “jump on Donald Trump’s bandwagon.”
But Minaj has since decided to support the president in his second term, even calling herself his “number one fan” in her remarks on Wednesday. “And that's not going to change,” he said.
“The hate or what people have to say, it doesn't affect me at all. In fact, it motivates me to support him more, and it will motivate all of us to support him more,” Minaj said. “We're not going to let them get away with their harassment and smear campaigns. It's not going to work, okay? He has a lot of strength behind him and God is protecting him.”
The president introduced her as “the biggest and most successful female rapper in history,” a title that is accurate considering her record sales and overall presence on the Billboard Hot 100. (Of course, Missy Elliott and Lauryn Hill might want to have a conversation.)
“I didn't know Nicki, and I've heard over the years that she's a huge Trump supporter, Trump fan,” POTUS continued. “And at times he received criticism because his community is not necessarily a Trump fan.”
Trump said Minaj was among those who stepped forward, along with people like Dell Computers CEO Michael S. Dell, and donated “hundreds of thousands of dollars” of their money to the new accounts. In addition to her generosity, POTUS was definitely a fan of Minaj's long, painted and pointed pink manicure. She chuckled as she told the audience, “I'm going to let my nails grow, because I love those nails. I'm going to let those nails grow.”
In December, before Christmas, the rapper also appeared on stage with conservative activist Erika Kirk, widow of Charlie Kirk, murdered in September at Utah Valley University. Minaj took the opportunity at the Phoenix conference of Kirk's organization, Turning Point USA, to praise Trump and mock California Governor Gavin Newsom.
Minaj, a Christian, praised Trump at the time for standing up for persecuted Christians in Nigeria and elsewhere.
“I have the utmost respect and admiration for our president,” Minaj said. “I don't know if he knows it, but he's given a lot of people hope that there's a chance to beat the bad guys and win and do it with your head held high.”
He also declared on stage that “there was nothing wrong with being a boy.”
“How about that?” she continued. “How powerful is that? How deep is that? Boys will be boys and there's nothing wrong with that.”
Minaj then read aloud some of her social media posts mocking Newsom, calling him “Newscum” and “Gavie-poo” and criticizing his advocacy on behalf of “trans kids.”
Not that the “Starships” rapper was hiding the secret of being tough when she said in 2023 that she was willing to “curse” certain people at certain times.
“When I hear the word mean, I think about the essence of who the person is,” she told Vogue. “I always tell people that the difference between being mean and being a bitch is that the bitch passes. The dog comes and goes. The bad thing is who you are. I might be the biggest bitch, at the peak of my bitch, but if the person I may be cussing at at that moment needs something from me, I'll give it to them. I have to be able to look in the mirror and be okay with myself.”
Trump Children's Accounts, a new type of IRA for U.S. citizens under age 18 on Dec. 31 of the year an account is opened, are part of the “Big Beautiful Bill” of tax breaks and spending cuts that became law last summer.
For children born during the second Trump administration, calendar years 2025 through 2028, accounts will receive $1,000 from the U.S. Treasury when a parent submits a form to the IRS to open the account. Additional pre-tax contributions of up to $5,000 a year are allowed, but not required, and one parent is custodian of the account until the child turns 18. Withdrawals for education, housing or business will be taxed as ordinary income.
Minaj is married to Kenneth Petty, who served four years in prison after being convicted of attempted rape in New York in 1995, and the couple has a son. Nicknamed “Papa Bear,” the baby was born in 2020, about five years too early to qualify for that $1,000.
