Panelists on "CNN This Morning" speculated on rapper Nicki Minaj's motivations for taking part in this weekend's Turning Point USA’s AmericaFest convention, where she praised President Donald Trump and mocked California Gov. Gavin Newsom as "New-scum."
The Grammy-nominated rapper had criticized Trump's immigration policies during his first term, but is now hailing him and Vice President JD Vance as "role models" for young men. She told the conservative audience that Trump and Vance both had a "very uncanny ability to be someone that you relate to."
And the panelists wondered what was driving her about-face.
"Nicki Minaj seems to melike a single-issue type ofvoter," said Sara Fischer, senior media reporter for Axios. "She cared a lot about the 'bring back our girls' movement in Nigeria."
The 43-year-old Minaj last month shared a message posted by Trump about possible sanctions against Nigeria over persecution of Christians, and she told the Turning Point crowd that she would speak up for Christians.
"This was like an applause linebecause people had just beentalking about the U.S. as a Christian nation at theconference," said host Audie Cornish.
CNN's Zachary Wolf wondered what was going on behind the scenes.
"There is something that wedon't know going on herebecause like you said, she cameout very publicly," Wolf said. "Trump issomebody who can be, you know,maybe not manipulated, butcertainly encouraged to dosomething on somebody's behalf.We don't know what that is. Soshe sees some reason to come outand do this. You know, isit finding a new group offollowers for her music? Idoubt it."
"Is it a pardon for someone inher family?" Cornish added. "In the meantime, Ithink people are payingattention A, because pop culturelikes what they would consider aheel turn. But second of all, Ithink it's just one of thosemoments where she had alreadybeen beefing with other rappersonline. Her fans were alreadystarting to ask a lot ofquestions, and this kind of addsto it."
"Yeah, and when's the lasttime she had a major hit?" Fischer wondered. "Likethis brings her back into thenews cycle, brings her back intothe zeitgeist in popularity.This is going to go viral on TikTok. I mean, Nicki Minaj hasbeen in the conversation for along time. I can't believe 'Super Bass' was 15 years ago. So this keeps her relevant."