What Did Nicki Minaj Say at the Turning Point USA Event?

By Peter Aitken and Hollie SilvermanShareNewsweek is a Trust Project member

Music mogul and rap artist Nicki Minaj made a surprise appearance on Sunday at the Turning Point USA's AmericaFest, the annual conference in Phoenix that features conservative commentators, elected officials, and media figures.

The conference this year is the first since Charlie Kirk's assassination in September, and Erika Kirk, his widow, took over as CEO of the enterprise. The weekend has seen a star-studded list of guest speakers including Ben Shapiro, JD Vance, and, most surprisingly, Minaj.

However, Minaj has recently cozied up to the Trump administration, finding common ground with President Donald Trump on the plight of Christians in Nigeria. Her sit-down talk with Erika Kirk on Sunday covered topics including faith, the Trump administration, and politics in America.

What To Know

The following is the transcript of Nicki Minaj's conversation with Turning Point USA CEO Erika Kirk. It has been lightly edited for accuracy and clarity.

Erika Kirk: So those of you who know Charlie was very good about having a surprise for every and we we are so blessed to have you. We are so grateful. I mean -

Nicki Minaj: Thank you. I'm honored to be here. I am honored to be here. Thank you for having me. Love you guys.

Erika Kirk: So we're just going to dive right into this. You had some fun words for Governor Newsom. I just - I have to read these tweets because they're amazing, and they're so funny. Okay, first one, we'll do this one, unless you want to read it in your own voice. I think it'd be really great.

Nicki Minaj: Okay. Oh, yeah. (Pause) It only gets worse from here for you, buddy. It's the end of the road for you, my love. Get on the Dallas jetski and let that beautiful hair blow in the wind. It'll make you happier than this race that you will not win. Enjoy life.

Erika Kirk: Okay, okay. One more, one more.

Nicki Minaj: Imagine being the guy running on wanting this trans kids haha. Not even a trans adult would run on that. Normal adults wake up and think they want to see healthy, safe, happy and not Gav. The Gav-nots. Gav - not in, Gav out. Send in the next guy. I'm bored.

Erika Kirk: So I'm just going to like your rep. Like I want you to say whatever you want to say to Gavin Newsom.

Nicki Minaj: Dear Newscum: we don't have a problem cleaning up the scum if we have to. Please try live. That's what I would say to Gabby Poo.

...

What Did Nicki Minaj Say About Donald Trump?

Erika Kirk: So with regard to the current administration, what has been maybe the biggest surprise for you or something that you just really has put on your heart, that you've learned about our president and our vice president?

Nicki Minaj: I have the utmost respect and admiration for our president... And he has - I don't know if he even knows this, but he's given so many people hope that there's a chance to beat the bad guys and to win and to do it, with your head held high and, your integrity intact. He's from Queens, New York, like me, so, but what he's shown me, personally, is, sometimes, you know, even as - even in the worst feeling times in your life, you think that you're never going to come back from it, but you do, and our president shows that. He's been through every single thing a person could be through, public, having to constantly be lied on.

It's not really that funny until you are in that person's shoes, that being lied on, you will never understand what it feels like. That person is a human being, they have a family who has to read those lies. That's not and it's just not fair, but this administration is full of people with heart and soul, and and they make me proud of them. Our vice president, he makes me, well, I,.

Erika Kirk: I love both of them,.

Nicki Minaj: But I they're both powerful men. Smart, strong, all of that. But both of them have a very uncanny ability to be someone that you can relate to. I can relate to that. When I hear them speak, I know that they're one of us. Like, I know that they're not - don't you guys agree? They haven't - they haven't lost - they haven't lost touch of the world. You know, they're still connected to the world and what's happening in the world, with the younger people and older people, with the richer people and not so rich people. They have the ability to still connect and be real, and make us feel proud to be American.

What Did Nicki Minaj Say About Politics in America?

Erika Kirk: So why now? Have you have you been involved with speaking about politics? What was kind of the - the turning thing for you? [Laughs] Yes. What was the turning point?

Nicki Minaj: Well...I just got tired of being pushed around. Sometimes you just get tired of it and then you realize: Wait a minute. I have something inside of me that's stronger than what's out there.

Erika Kirk: That's right.

Nicki Minaj: So when you had enough, you realize, wait a minute. This - why do I even care about these people and what they don't? Who are they? They don't even know who they are. So I'm not going to - I'm not going to back down anymore. I'm not going to back down ever again.

Erika Kirk: Amen. Can the students in the room raise your hand? Wow. This question is for you guys. So - you guys are very courageous and bold on your campus. Nikki I know our students feel this way, but why do you think speaking your mind has become so controversial?

Nicki Minaj: Because people no longer are using their minds, their brains. So right now, just imagine - we're not allowed to have a different opinion anymore. We're not allowed to think out loud anymore. We're not - like, it just, this is not what the world used to feel like. Especially for the young people - I don't want them growing up in a world where they feel like they're right.

I mean, they deserve for their voices to be heard. They have valid feelings, and and they are thinking about things, and it deserves attention. You know, we should we should listen to what they're saying, and if you're growing up in a world that tells you it's taboo to say something that the masses don't agree with about, well, that, that's not okay, we're not going to have it. And I, and I love that, you know, that it's it's given the younger people confidence that they will need later on in life. You guys will need it and you will have it. So yeah, I'm rooting - I'm waiting for you.

Erika Kirk: Again, Charlie would always say that it really does not take skill to be courageous. It takes a choice. It takes a decision. And I just I want to say again, thank you for coming and being courageous, and being able to share your feelings with us, and the reason why that also holds true sentiment-wise, is because I know that you are getting a lot of backlash from your own industry. What is your reaction to that?

Nicki Minaj: I didn't notice.

Erika Kirk: Amen. I feel the same way. When people are like, what do you think about them? I'm like, I don't think about them.

Nicki Minaj: Same girl.

Erika Kirk: We don't even think about them.

Erika Kirk: We don't have time to for two busy building, right? Yeah.

Nicki Minaj: Where the where the cool kids.

Erika Kirk: Okay.

Nicki Minaj: The other, the other, the other people, they're the ones who are still just disgruntled, but really, they're just disgruntled with themselves. They they are angry with themselves, you guys. So you can wake up and think about somebody who is determined to just stay lost. I literally tell them, stay mad. Stay mad, because we are going to stay joyful, and peaceful, and iconic, and smart. Yeah, we're going to stay thinkers in a world that doesn't want us to think. We will think by ourselves on our own. We will continue to think.

Erika Kirk: This is something I know that's really important to you and on your heart, and I just, I, I personally want to know what inspired you to speak out for the Christians that are being slaughtered in Nigeria.

Nicki Minaj: Well... and that brings me back to our great president and this administration and our great country that we take for granted that are right now in this world are people who cannot worship God as they please, where they please. If we take them for granted because we have it, we can't even imagine not having that right, but every time we pray in fellowship, we have to remember the people that are right now in this world hiding to pray in fellowship.

And we have to pray for them, and - first of all, Nigeria is a place I've always loved, someone very dear to me, my pastor, is Nigerian, I have lots of Nigerian bonds, and so hearing that people are being kidnapped - while they're in church, people are being kidnaped, people are being killed, brutalized, all because of their religion.

That should spark outrage in the Great America, and that's what it's doing. And again, we're not backing down anymore. We are not going to be silenced by the bullies anymore. Okay? Know that. Hear that. Receive that. Bullies. We won't be silenced ever again. We will speak up for Christians wherever they are in this world.

Erika Kirk: Amen. Amen. I don't know if you can see this at home, but she is getting a ton of standing ovation from I love you guys so much.

Nicki Minaj: Thank you. Thank you guys.

...

What Did Nicki Minaj Say About Prayer and God?

Erika Kirk: So going along that thread, can you tell us about your relationship with God? Because I think a lot of us [indecipherable].

Nicki Minaj: Sure. Well, my relationship in, with God started - well, when I was a toddler in Trinidad, my grandmother, if things got spicy in the house, like if people - if the kids and grandkids were arguing or fighting, she would make all the little kids go in her room and make us say, like, and say a prayer. So, later on in my life, well, now it's not much later when I was like 10, 11, 12, I started going to church in New York, and, it changed everything, changed my life for the better because I was going every week, I was hearing the Word of God be preached, and then I was going home and I was applying it to my life, even as a little girl, I learned how to pray very early.

I always had this faith that made people think, you know, the kind of faith that you think a person is crazy, like, oh, please, like, you know, but I had that, instinctively, once I started hearing about [indecipherable], you know, just getting more into the Bible, I got baptized when I was about -and I got baptized when I was about 13. I got baptized and, I have just always applied those teachings to my life. I try to, I mean, and that's the thing: we're not perfect. I'm trying.

Sometimes I would wake up and feel so far removed from - not God, but from fellowship. You know, I was like, oh my God, I just go to church on Wednesdays, Friday, and Sunday every week. Like literally three days out of the week, and then later on in your life you become busy and you start thinking, oh, well, you know, God is in my heart and, you know, but then sometimes you can be in an industry as well that pulls you away even more, so lately I've been feeling like, you know, like if you haven't seen a long lost best friend for, you know, for a long time, and then you bump into them again, that's how it's been feeling for me, like just going back to God and praying and talking to him, and you know, and he said to me, where were you? Where've you been? I've been waiting on you!

And since that moment that God had that ... and something's better, because now I'm thinking about is God pleased? Not if the bullies and uglies are pleased, but if God is pleased. And when you have that personal relationship with God, guess what? Even in school, he's there. Wherever you are and whenever you need it, you have something that you can tap into immediately. It's immediate. You don't have to leave a message. He's not going to call you back. He's there immediately for you. Call on him, and on the first ring, he's going to answer. And I want you guys to remember that. You're young. And first of all, first of all, I want to say I'm proud of you guys. This is a major to to be.

So yeah. For you guys that are in college, to be so young and to care this much, this early in your life, it tells us how smart you are and it tells us that there's hope for our future. So God bless you. Congratulations you guys. You're amazing. Congratulations. You guys are amazing. Okay? Know it. Feel it. Yes. Yes. Proudly. Be proud. Be who you are, proudly.

What Did Nicki Minaj Say About Children in America?

Erika Kirk: Amen. So what have you. I mean, you're an amazing mother. What have you seen that has been a struggle for young women today. And then also, since both of us have little boys, I would love for you to also talk about the male side of that question as well.

Nicki Minaj: Okay, well, it's something that I have noticed recently is that for little girls, I think that no matter how you look, we should be trying to instill into them to be proud of how they love. Recently in the media, it's almost been like a push to - it's not just making young black children feel proud of themselves, but it's almost like doing that and at the same time telling other children not to be proud of themselves.

I don't want any child feeling that way. If we - if it's as if we as black women we felt that we were not being represented and not being admired for our beauty - if we felt like that as a black woman, why would we want to do that to other women? Why would we now need to make other people downplay their beauty so that we can feel - no, that's not how it works. I don't need someone with blond hair and blue eyes to downplay their beauty, because I know my beauty. Do you understand? It doesn't bother me that a woman feels and says that she's beautiful.

Why shouldn't she feel that? Why have we gotten to a point where certain colors or certain kinds of people have to be afraid of loving themselves and loving the way they look? Like, isn't that wild? So for little girls, I don't want what was done to little black girls done to little white girls. I don't want it done to any girls. I want all the little girls in the world to know that you are unique. You are beautiful. You are you. And you can compliment another girl. You can compliment another woman and still know that you are epic and amazing.

So that's what I would say about for the girls, and I know the older - I know, my adults understand clearly where I'm, where I'm going with that, where I'm, you know, I just, I don't like - I don't like that. I don't like people making other people feel badly about themselves in any way. We need to nurture young girls.

Erika Kirk: Yes.

Nicki Minaj: Whether they are black, white, Asian, Hispanic, they still need to be nurtured. They cannot continue to pay for other people since they haven't done anything wrong.

...

What Did Nicki Minaj Say About JD Vance?

Erika Kirk: Amen. What do you think about for young men, for young men and for young men?

Nicki Minaj: Don't be Newscum. Yes. See, there, young men, you have amazing role models like, handsome, dashing president. And you have amazing role models like the assassin JD Vance, our vice president, and when I say that...

Erika Kirk: Trust me, there's nothing new under the sun that I have not heard. So you're fine. Yes, we did. You have to laugh about it. Truly. I have been called every single thing, and you know what? God is so good, you let it roll right off your back. And this is what's so beautiful about this moment, because if the internet wants to clip it, who cares? I love this woman. She's an amazing woman. She has a soul and a heart for the Lord. And words are words, but I know her heart and it doesn't even matter, and you say what you want to say because I know your heart that you will not judge that.

Nicki Minaj: Thank you.

Erika Kirk: Fo boys, boys be boys.

Erika Kirk: Amen.

Nicki Minaj: Be boys, it's okay. Be boys, there's nothing wrong with being a boy. How about that?

Erika Kirk: Amen.

Nicki Minaj: How powerful is that? How profound is that? Amen, boys will be boys, and there's nothing wrong with that.

Crowd: Yeah!

Nicki Minaj: Yeah, that's what I want to say.

Erika Kirk: What's something the media and the world in general misunderstands about you?

Nicki Minaj: Oh. I think people that I'm relying on, you know, when you have a strong sense as a woman to just box, you answer one box of one category of, or, you know, the other words they want to, like, put you in a box to be able to label you what they want you to be, but you're so much more than that because you, because you intimidate them, you know, they want to find something, and if they can't find something, they'll make something up, and so they'll put a label on you, but uhm, you know, it doesn't - what people misunderstand about me now? I don't care about - I really don't. They - in fact, I love that they misunderstand me now.

What Did Nicki Minaj Say About Christians in Power?

Erika Kirk: I do too, because it shows that you're you're not a part of this world. Someone once told me, do not be surprised when the world acts like the world. And I held on to that so much, because even being in this, this role now, people don't - they're trying to figure me out? Okay, enjoy. I am who I am, there's nothing to hide. And I know you feel the same way when people misunderstand you and you're like, okay, well, I have an audience of what - I have an audience of two, but I have an audience in heaven, and and I know the Lord knows me, Lord knows you, and he put everything in you to be able to make a difference in this world.

Likewise, to all these students and everyone else here, and to go into that further, I know that this - and I'll end on this - I know that a lot of you guys have been hearing about, you know, we are doing this for Charlie, and we're doing this for his legacy, but we're also doing it because each and every one of you guys have a legacy, and I want you guys, when you leave this conference to take something with you, and when it gets tough out there, I want you to hold with you a word - it could be anything. For me, it's Charlie, but for you guys, it could be, I don't know, refocus. Family, children, future - something.

Hold that word in your heart so that when you go back out into the world and you have someone screaming in your face, someone spitting in your face, someone flipping your table on campus, someone making fun of you because you're conservative, so I'm making fun of you because you love the Lord - say that word to yourself out loud or internally to refocus your brain and your heart and your soul. To know that you're about something so much bigger and greater. The legacy with Turning Point USA, yes, but also for yourself. And so Nikki, I want to ask you in closing, what is something that you want to leave as a legacy in this world for your family and for your baby, for everything?

Nicki Minaj: Well, that it's, that it's okay to change your mind. It's okay to change your mind. You don't have to, you know, there's sometimes there's a lot of things projected on to you when you change your own mind, you know, they project fear, shame, on to people who don't think and do as they think and do, but I've traveled the world, I've performed at huge crowds all around the world. No matter how many songs I do on that stage, it didn't mean as much as this because this is a direct link for younger people. This is a direct link between young people and God.

And there's been, there's been, there's been a lack of that. There's been a lack of that in our media, in our everyday conversation. People have been, you know, interestingly enough, people have been even persecuted - Christians have been being persecuted right here in our country in different ways. So when we talk about Nigeria and other countries, know that prior administrations saw nothing wrong with that, and that's what was wrong with that. I truly feel that there are people out there who felt good about chastising Christians right here in our country, and it's kind of really, really sick.

We can't let people like that be in power. You guys. That's the truth. I can sugarcoat it and laugh and Kiki, but the truth is, I am here today to tell you guys that we absolutely cannot let people who have a problem with us worshiping God. We cannot have that in power. We cannot have them in power.

All you have to do is look at what is happening in other places in the world. Look at what is being done to Christians all around the world, and ask yourself why people in this country that were in positions of power felt so comfortable to try to take our voices from us. They were that afraid. They are that intimidated. They are that insecure. They are that small inside that hearing us and seeing us worship God irritated them. Our spirit irritates them, because when we speak, they get shown up. When the truth walks in the room, the lies hide. They don't come out willingly. You got to pry it out of them. They hide because they don't want you or anyone to know who they really are behind closed doors, because even they know how evil it is to try to deprive people of worshiping God.

Erika Kirk: Amen. We love you. Nicki Minaj!

Nicki Minaj: Thank you guys! My darling, thank you for having me.

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