President Donald Trump commented on Nicki Minaj’s body at a campaign rally in Port Huron, Michigan, on Sunday, Oct. 25, as the rapper sat in the audience. The full transcript shows Trump said he hoped she “wasn’t insulted,” but it doesn’t show an apology, which some early reports described.
Minaj spoke later in the same rally. She urged Michigan voters to back Republican Senate nominee Mike Rogers and gubernatorial candidate John James, nine days before the Nov. 3 midterms.
What Trump said about Nicki Minaj
The remark came about 50 minutes into the speech at McMorran Place Arena, according to the Roll Call Factba.se transcript. Trump was retelling a story about Sen. Jon Husted, the Ohio Republican, which he has told at several rallies this month.
He said he had looked Husted “up and down” after learning he had played college football. Then he turned to Minaj. The transcript records it this way:
“By the way, I looked at one hell of a beautiful a** before, Nicki Minaj. That, that’s hard to miss. That’s stand out, Nicki. That’s hard to miss. Okay. I’m gonna get back to my story, Nicki. I hope Nicki wasn’t insulted, but we love Nicki. She’s been with us for a long time.”
(Factba.se prints the word in full. We’ve starred it out.)
Outlets transcribed the line slightly differently. TMZ, which posted the video, heard “Stand up” where Factba.se has “That’s stand out.” Newsweek quoted the opening as “I’ve looked at.” The crowd cheered after the remark.
Some early write-ups quoted Trump as saying “I’m sorry” and called it an apology. Neither the Factba.se transcript nor the TMZ, Newsweek or HuffPost accounts include those words. The closest line is “I hope Nicki wasn’t insulted.”
Why Trump was talking about Jon Husted
The Husted story dates to an Oct. 12 rally in Youngstown, Ohio, where Trump first described the senator’s physique, Newsweek reported. He has repeated it since. Husted, appointed to the Senate in January 2025, faces Democrat Sherrod Brown in a Nov. 3 special election that Cook Political Report rates a toss-up.
In Port Huron, Trump said he had made the Husted comments “in fun.” He went on to call the coverage of them an example of “how fake the news is.”
What Minaj told the crowd
Trump brought Minaj on stage near the end of the rally, about 50 minutes after the remark. He introduced her as “the queen of rap” and said “she’s been with me from day one.”
She led a “We love Trump” chant, then said: “I am so honored to be working with this president. He represents resilience.” She added that he had “given us a, a, a future to look forward to, a brighter future for us and our children.”
She led chants for Rogers and James and said Michigan should “lead in the movement.” She also said, “We don’t want our children to be bombarded with sex changes, right?” She closed: “If you run again, I will support you again.” The 22nd Amendment bars anyone from being elected president more than twice.
Afterward, Trump said: “She never looked more beautiful.” The transcript doesn’t show any reference by Minaj to the earlier remark. We found no public comment from her or her representatives on it as of Monday.
Minaj traveled to the rally aboard Air Force One, The Hill reported. Fox News reported the same quotes from her speech.
Is Nicki Minaj going to be White House press secretary?
Nothing suggests a formal offer. Before the rally, White House communications director Steven Cheung posted a video of himself interviewing Minaj on the plane. “Ladies and gentlemen, I think we may have found the new White House Press Secretary!” he wrote on X.
In the clip, Minaj praised Trump’s work ethic and called him “a man who’s won three elections,” according to The Hill. Trump lost the 2020 election to Joe Biden.
The post landed while the job is open. Katie Zacharia, named on Oct. 9 to succeed Karoline Leavitt, is leaving after a single briefing, the AP reported on Oct. 16. We covered the questions over Zacharia’s legal credentials before her exit. HuffPost reported on Monday that the post is still vacant.
How Minaj went from Trump critic to rally speaker
Minaj’s support is recent. In 2018 she criticised the separation of migrant families at the border. In 2020 she said she was “not gonna jump on the Trump bandwagon,” CNN reported in a December 2025 look at her shift.
That December, she praised Trump and JD Vance at Turning Point USA’s AmericaFest, which we covered when fans asked whether she had left Instagram. On Jan. 28, at the Treasury Department’s Trump Accounts summit, she said, “I am probably the president’s number one fan, and that’s not going to change,” AFP reported.
The race she campaigned for is close. Rogers faces Democrat Abdul El-Sayed for the seat Democrat Gary Peters is giving up, one of the Senate races that could decide the majority. Michigan votes on Nov. 3.