Nicki Minaj sparked intense online backlash after she mistakenly called Vice President JD Vance something very unexpected during a December 21, 2025, appearance at Turning Point USA’s AmericaFest in Phoenix.
She made the verbal slip while standing alongside Erika Kirk, the widow of TPUSA founder Charlie Kirk. He had been assassinated just three months earlier in a tragedy that shocked the conservative movement.
Nicki Minaj’s surprise appearance at AmericaFest turned awkward when she delivered what many viewed as an impossibly tone-deaf gaffe.
While praising political figures as role models for young men, Minaj declared, “Dear young men, you have amazing role models like our handsome, dashing president, and you have amazing role models like the assassin, JD Vance, our vice president.”
Nicki Minaj has a major slip of the tongue, referring to JD Vance as an “assassin.”
She immediately realizes her mistake, while Erika Kirk tells her she’s doing just fine.
Erika Kirk then tells her to just laugh it off and says Nicki Minaj is a God-fearing woman. pic.twitter.com/cgcK6Hz1gp
— Shadow of Ezra (@ShadowofEzra) December 21, 2025
The crowd immediately reacted with shocked murmurs and uncomfortable laughter.
Minaj realized her mistake instantly, covering her mouth with her hand as embarrassment washed over her face.
The timing couldn’t have been worse as she was sharing the stage with Erika Kirk, whose husband had been murdered by a gunman at Utah Valley University in September 2025.
Erika Kirk immediately stepped in to comfort the rattled rapper. “Trust me, there’s nothing new under the sun that I have not heard, so you’re fine,” Kirk told her, urging the audience to “laugh it off.”
She added, “I love this woman. She’s an amazing woman. She has a soul and a heart for the Lord, and words are words.”
Minaj later attempted damage control on X, explaining she meant Vance is an “assassin” in debates because he’s “quick as a computer.”
Nicki Minaj sparks backlash after calling JD Vance an “assassin”
Online reaction was ruthless as Nicki Minaj calls JD Vance an “assassin” on stage with Charlie Kirk’s widow present there.
One fan dismissed the entire event: “Erika Kirk meeting with Nicki Minaj lol. It’s all a show, but this is a clown show.”
A second fan questioned Kirk’s state of mind: “What stage of grief is that grinning onstage with a registered sex offender’s wife amid fireworks?”
A third fan suggested the slip was intentional: “It wasn’t a slip of the tongue, it was a jab at Candace 😂,” referencing Minaj’s ongoing feud with Candace Owens.
Another expressed disbelief: “That was intensely insane. I feel like I am stepping into the twilight zone every time I see EK. 🤪”
A fifth commenter accused both women of deliberate manipulation: “They are doing it on purpose. Making fools out of worshipping NPCs. Sucking in more souls for the Grift, as (s)he also ‘accidentally’ slipped.”
The incident underscored the increasingly surreal nature of political-entertainment crossovers in contemporary conservative spaces.
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