Years before Trump praised Nicki Minaj’s ‘beautiful a—,’ the rapper criticized his politics and treatment of women

Minaj’s growing MAGA embrace marks a dramatic shift from years of criticism of Trump’s immigration policies and treatment of women.

Donald Trump‘s recent comments about Nicki Minaj‘s backside have gone viral, drawing much criticism over the perceived misogyny as a trade-off for the rapper’s MAGA embrace of the president.

“You spent all these years demanding respect and demanding people recognize your talent, only to have Trump reduce you to your body part,” said Charlamagne Tha God, host of “The Breakfast Club” radio show. “That’s why you’ve got to stop confusing being chosen with being respected.”

During a Sunday night rally in Michigan, where Nicki Minaj traveled with the president on Air Force One, Trump called out the size of Minaj’s butt, telling the crowd of thousands, “I looked at one hell of a beautiful a— before—Nicki Minaj. That’s hard to miss.” The president even asked the platinum-selling artist to “stand up” to give the audience a view.

Minutes later, the platinum-selling artist gave brief remarks, leading a chant of “We love Trump!” and urging Michigan voters to back the Republican nominees for U.S. Senate and governor.

“It is an honor to stand with you every single time and I will continue to support you forever,” Minaj said of Trump.

Nicki Minaj’s bold embrace of Trump is a stark contrast to the hip-hop star’s previous remarks about the 45th and 47th president of the United States.

In the 2010 MTV documentary “Nicki Minaj: My Time Now,” years before Trump was elected president, Minaj criticized Trump’s association with young women in remarks about misogyny in the entertainment industry.

“Donald Trump, he gets to hang out with young b—s, and have 50 different wives and just be cool,” said Minaj. She sarcastically added, “Oh, Donald, we love you, Donald Trump.”

During Trump’s first term as president, Minaj, an immigrant from Trinidad and Tobago who is not a U.S. citizen, criticized his immigration policies, which focused on mass deportations.

“Island girl, Donald Trump want me go home,” she rapped in the 2016 song “Black Barbies.”

In 2018, she similarly called out Trump’s controversial family separation policy in a social media post in which she wrote, “I came to this country as an illegal immigrant at 5 years old. I can’t imagine the horror of being in a strange place and having my parents stripped away from me at the age of 5. This is so scary to me. Please stop this.”

During a 2020 interview at Pollstar Live in Los Angeles, Minaj elaborated on her gripe with Trump’s immigration policies, but clarified, “I’m not gonna jump on the Donald Trump bandwagon. I don’t like that. I get that a lot of people don’t like him for obvious reasons.”

She continued, “But, what stuck with me was the children being taken away from their parents when they came into this country. That really bothered me because I was one of those immigrant children coming to America to flee poverty…or whether you’re fleeing from war.” Minaj added, “That is what really raised my eyebrows. That is what made me go, ‘Something about this doesn’t sit right in my spirit.’ But! On ‘Celebrity Apprentice,’ I think he was funny as hell.”

A few short years later, Minaj would give her full-throated support to President Trump, praising his military strikes in Nigeria over the alleged persecution of Christians in the African country and backing the president’s “Trump accounts” for U.S. children.

Democratic strategist Antjuan Seawright told theGrio that Minaj and other Black celebrities appear not to care about the “cost” of embracing Trump, who remains deeply unpopular among Black voters.

“That’s why you have seen them associating very closely politically with Donald Trump,” said Seawright, who advises several national Democratic members of Congress.

However, Seawright says Trump’s recent remarks about Minaj’s backside expose a larger contradiction in the Republican Party, which has been transformed by Trump’s MAGA politics.

“It’s ironic that for a party who prides itself on being so Christianity-based, thinking GOP means God’s only party [and] Christian only means conservative, that somehow Trump can get on stage on a Sunday instead of talking about middle class and working class, he’s talking about a woman’s a—,” Seawright told theGrio.

Noting that Trump has also repeatedly talked about the butt of U.S. Senator Jon Husted (R-Ohio), the Democratic insider said, “It just goes to show you how they no values, and they’re so hypocritical.”

He added, of Trump’s butt fixation, “It’s not only weird and strange, but I think you start to question somebody’s morals and values at that point.”