Name: Nicki Minaj praises Trump at AmericaFest
Uploaded: 2025-12-23T17:38:36.385Z
Duration: 10 min 47 s
Description: Bill Caruso and Adam Weiss join to discuss rapper and singer-songwriter Nicki Minaj praising President Donald Trump at AmericaFest.

Bill Caruso and Adam Weiss join to discuss rapper and singer-songwriter Nicki Minaj praising President Donald Trump at AmericaFest.

At TPUSA's America Fest Conference in Arizona, global pop star Nicki Minaj publicly praised former President Donald Trump, stating he has given many people hope and inspired them to 'beat the bad guys' with integrity. Her remarks were noted as significant by political commentators, given her previous criticism of Trump and the rarity of major celebrities supporting conservative causes.

The panel also discussed the ongoing controversy surrounding the release of Epstein-related files, with Trump's attorney dismissing concerns over photos involving Trump. Additionally, the conversation shifted to health care reform, where panelists highlighted the continued partisan deadlock and called for meaningful changes to address affordability and insurance subsidies.

Nicki Minaj praises Trump at AmericaFest

Joining us now is Bill Caruso. He's a Democratic strategist and attorney. And also joining us is Adam Weiss. Haven't seen him in a while. He's a GOP and media strategist. Welcome to you both. Good morning, guys. Hey, good morning. So global pop star Nicki Minaj, she turned heads as she took the stage at TPUSA's America Fest Conference in Arizona, opening up about how she really feels about the president. Let's watch. I have the utmost respect and admiration for our president. I don't know if he even knows this, but he's given so many people hope that there is a chance to beat the bad guys and to win and to do it with your head held high. And your integrity intact. But gentlemen, let's not forget, this is the same woman who, in 2018, during Trump's first presidency criticized the commander in chief for his border policies. Adam, I have to start with you here because you were at the event. Tell us, what was the general ethos around her appearance? And just let us know what happened. I left Saturday. I took a red eye. So I wasn't there for her speech. Finally, we're getting a little bit of pop culture. But I can think back. Remember Cardi B did her five-minute dance, and Kamala thought that would help her to at least a victory. And that was a sad moment in that election. So at least we're getting some stars finally, some celebrities coming. And it's a big moment because usually it's just one political person after another political person with conservatives. To get someone of her caliber finally coming out and saying, hey, I'm MAGA. I'm here to support conservatives, that's a big thing for the Republican conservative movement. It really is. It's a huge thing. So huge, Bill, that you know what? That's possibly the biggest fear of Democrats. What is that fear? Middle of America joining forces with urban communities. R&B and rap joining forces with country music. Why? Because they both are realizing, wait a second, we're battling the same swamp. We're battling the same bad policies that have impacted whether you talk about the rural areas or the urban cities for decades. And a lot of people are waking up, including Nicki Minaj. What say you? Well, it's a big upgrade from Kid Rock, so congrats. That's true. Now listen, no hate for Kid Rock. I'm a Kid Rock fan too. Listen, I don't know what any of this means. I'm somewhat speechless and surprised waking up here this morning and seeing Cardi B in that place. But it's good to some extent, because I think it gives folks that aren't necessarily plugged into the political side of the world a little bit of connective tissue, right? These folks are somewhat ambassadors to that world. I'm also a believer too, though, it's somewhat irrelevant, that the politics matter, the celebrities don't, regardless of what side of the aisle they're on. But it's nice, and in the spirit of the holiday season, I will applaud Cardi B for getting herself involved and helping to get more people involved in politics. I think Cardi B, Nicki Minaj, go down the list, a lot of people, including, I think, Kodak Black and other R&B and rappers are actually getting involved. Why? Because they're sick and tired of being sick and tired, just like any other average American. Go ahead, Adam. It was the first event I went to during the inauguration. It was the Crypto Ball. I think it was the very first day of the announcement. And there was a lot of crypto folks and MAGA people. But all of a sudden, Snoop Dogg popped up on stage. And we know how he criticized Trump throughout his campaign. And he performed, and I was shocked. And then another big rapper came out. So that was like a big cultural moment that Snoop came right out when Trump won the second time. So it is making a difference what's happening with the conservatives this time around. Exactly. Even when you go back to the 80s, they actually used to sing about President Trump. Well, he wasn't president back then. But they used to talk about and sing about President Trump, Donald Trump, back then through the 80s and 90s. So this is no surprise. But Trump's attorney, Todd Blanch, is pushing back on new questions about images and evidence in the Epstein case that boiled over the weekend. Well, you can see in that photo, there's photographs of women. And so we learned after releasing that photograph that there were concerns about those women and the fact that we had put that photo up. So we pulled that photo down. It has nothing to do with President Trump. There are dozens of photos of President Trump already released to the public seeing him with Mr. Epstein. He has said that in the 90s and early 2000s, he socialized with him. So the absurdity of us pulling down a photo, a single photo, because President Trump was in it, is laughable. You know, you're an attorney, Bill. And the thing is, they say that a picture is worth 1,000 words. But it doesn't mean that it's evidence of a crime, necessarily. But Blanch, essentially dismissing concerns about any Trump Epstein image as laughable and framing this as a non-story. Your thoughts? Yeah, you don't need to be an attorney here, my friend. We're not in a court of law. We're in the court of public opinion. And this thing is a hot mess and continues to be off the rails. Listen, they have mismanaged this from the start. There was a whole promise of everything being released. And it was coming out on day one. And we're in day 100 and something plus now. And it's still going. And it's still going. And this may be a big nothing burger. But right now, I don't think that's what the American people feels like. I feel like every day it's death by 1,000 cuts on the Epstein files for the Trump administration. And yes, former President Clinton's there. And a couple other folks are in there. But the real problem is for the Trump administration. And they haven't been able to put the lid on this thing. It just keeps bubbling over and bubbling over. And here we are today talking about another picture that he may have been in, he wasn't. They took it down. And a whole bunch of redacted files that people still don't really know what is up and what is down in this issue. Yeah, I'm curious to get your perspective on this from a media lens, because to Bill's point, it has come out in drips and drabs, namely because they are also wanting to protect the victims and the victims' rights here, too, which is a purpose. But ultimately, there isn't going to be a lot of accountability. Because let's face it, the main defendant here, Jeffrey Epstein, is dead. So there's no way of actually going after him at this point. But what do you make of the story where it stands thus far with respect to what we've seen? Krish, I feel like this is similar to 2020. Every story, phone call with Ukraine, BLM riots, COVID, they wanted to blame it on Trump. They wanted Trump to lose the election. They want to muddy the waters, trickle out things in the Epstein files. They blurred a photo last week of Trump with women. This photo was already out there. Trump was with a few women at a social event in New York. Man, I'm at social events all the time with women doing photos. So that's what the idea is. They don't have anything else. They just want to keep in the Epstein files in the news. And we all know, if they really had something, they would have brought it out when Kamala was running. They would have brought everything out. They would have done everything they can to make Trump lose that election in 2024. So I really don't think they have anything. It's all politics. And they just want to hurt the GOP in the midterms. So true. I mean, because people are worried about putting food on the table as well as their health care. Now turning to health care, Oklahoma Senator James Blankford went on to explain why Republicans and Democrats have not been able to bridge the gap on health care subsidies. We actually brought it and said, hey, instead of sending money to insurance companies, which is what Democrats want to do, why don't we get those dollars to individuals and to be able to give them greater choice? They opposed that. They did not want individuals to be able to have more choice. They wanted all the money to go straight to insurance companies in these tax credits that they want to give to insurance companies. They said, that's caused major problems and all kinds of fraud that we could show all the fraud on it. So we deadlocked on it between, should the federal government and insurance companies run health care, or should people have more power for that? I want you to pick a side. And that side is the American people. What's in their best interest? Getting something done. I mean, listen, all we hear is excuses. And you and I have talked about this a number of times. Obamacare had flaws. And it did. It's going on over a decade now that we haven't fixed those flaws. We haven't addressed those issues. And we want to talk about sending money to insurance companies. I agree with the senator that we shouldn't be doing that. But then let's get something else done. And just giving money, subsidies to private citizens, doesn't necessarily make the problem go away. But we don't even have that as an option on the table right now. We've been talking about this since the last Trump administration on an alternative to Obamacare and getting rid of subsidies and paying for health care or making health care more affordable. And we have failed to do that as a nation. Let's get it done in 2026. We're out of time in 2025. But each party needs to make this a priority. And the president needs to show some leadership on this. Yeah, I mean, it does seem, Adam, as well, just like the Epstein files, the Democrats are taking hold of the health care issue. Even though they shut down the government for 43 days, they still couldn't get a vote with respect to this either. It seems like they're using this as a way to take advantage of what Americans are feeling right now, affordability, health care as an issue for the midterms. Your final thoughts here. Obamacare was terrible to begin with. It was John Roberts that voted and called it a tax. I remember when deductibles were normal. Even if someone gets hurt, even with Obamacare, there's $5,000 deductibles. Most people have $500, $1,000 in their savings account. They can't afford this. Obamacare needs to be reworked all over again. And it's just a terrible thing that people have to have these deductibles. And Obamacare should be scrapped, period, I feel. Right. There definitely needs to be a lot of reforms ahead, especially hopefully they get it done before the holiday season. We're already in it, but Congress is out of session then. But thanks so much, Adam and Bill. As always, great to see you both. Happy holidays. Yes. Merry Christmas, happy holidays. Thank you. Merry Christmas, guys.

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