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 me like a single-issue type of voter," 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 line because people had just been talking about the U.S. as a Christian nation at the conference," said host Audie Cornish.
CNN's Zachary Wolf wondered what was going on behind the scenes.
"There is something that we don't know going on here because like you said, she came out very publicly," Wolf said. "Trump is somebody who can be, you know, maybe not manipulated, but certainly encouraged to do something on somebody's behalf. We don't know what that is. So she sees some reason to come out and do this. You know, is it finding a new group of followers for her music? I doubt it."
"Is it a pardon for someone in her family?" Cornish added. "In the meantime, I think people are paying attention A, because pop culture likes what they would consider a heel turn. But second of all, I think it's just one of those moments where she had already been beefing with other rappers online. Her fans were already starting to ask a lot of questions, and this kind of adds to it."
"Yeah, and when's the last time she had a major hit?" Fischer wondered. "Like this brings her back into the news cycle, brings her back into the zeitgeist in popularity. This is going to go viral on TikTok. I mean, Nicki Minaj has been in the conversation for a long time. I can't believe 'Super Bass' was 15 years ago. So this keeps her relevant."
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