President Donald Trump had jokes for everybody at Friday night’s make-up dinner.

When the president took the mic, he treated the celebration of free speech like a Comedy Central roast.

With one exception, he wasn’t funny, and at least one of his jokes mocked one of his greatest allies in the Black community: Nicki Minaj.

Trump’s Nicki Minaj joke at the Correspondents’ Dinner sparked backlash, but the rapper clapped back with humor of her own. (Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images)

The president took the podium to slam Hollywood and the media, and he didn’t hold back on the “Super Bass” rapper, one of his most vocal Black celebrity supporters.

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The dig came during the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner on July 24 at the Waldorf Astoria in Washington, D.C. The president used part of his set to revisit the organization’s April gala, which was cut short after a gunman breached security and shots were fired, sending guests scrambling for cover.

But the president tried to lighten it up with a joke that landed as hard as a rock, leaving many calling him a racist.

“After hearing the gunshots, many people yelled, ‘Get down!’ which caused Nicki Minaj to start twerking,” Trump said. “Can you believe it? She’s the only one that really understood what that meant.”

The crowd reportedly politely laughed, but online reaction was swift and brutal.

Threads immediately weighed in, with one person writing, “This is not mental illness, this is racism without a filter.”

Another agreed, “That is so racist and an age old trope .. I am surprised his writers didn’t start a joke about Ebonics.. this admin is just disgusting.” A third simply gasped, “He is just such an embarrassment. Why did she align herself with this moron?”

Someone else writing, “That’s what she gets,” while another user piled on with, “I don’t feel bad for Nicki that’s what happens when you align yourself with scum.”

Minaj playfully clapped back the next day on X, posting an image of a pink-haired Chucky doll with the caption, “How I’ll be looking @ the President next time I see him.”

Fans quickly flooded her comments, and the response only got messier.

One user wrote, “Your massa making you the laughing stock for the white people club. how embarrassing.”

The roast capped months of Minaj cozying up to the president after years of sending mixed political signals.

She joined Trump at a White House Rose Garden event earlier this month before posing with him inside the Oval Office. Sharing the photo July 6 on X, she wrote, “Whoa!!!! #WhiteHouseBarbie with her favorite President of all time!!!”

At the top of 2026, she attended the Trump Accounts summit and called herself “probably the president’s No. 1 fan.” That same month, she showed up to a Kennedy Center screening of first lady Melania Trump’s documentary.

Minaj told Time magazine in an interview published in May 2026 that she had quietly backed Trump for years but stayed silent out of fear of industry backlash.

“Many celebrities feel the way I do, but they don’t say it,” she said. “Sometimes, you just need one brave person to get the brunt of the impact. I think I am the catalyst for that change.”

”The View” hosts were not buying the explanation.

Sunny Hostin pointed to Minaj’s citizenship paperwork getting finalized after her appearance with Trump, and raised speculation about pardon hopes tied to her husband Kenneth Petty, and Minaj’s incarcerated brother.

Neither man was convicted of a federal crime, making them ineligible for presidential clemency, and Hostin concluded bluntly, “I would suspect, perhaps the reason that she has gone MAGA is for personal.”

Now the woman who once bragged about being the president’s biggest fan, in true Trump fashion, is a punchline to him.

He mocked her sexualized image to try to be clever in front of reporters, cameras, and a room full of the same media figures she has spent months defending Trump against.

Minaj built an entire rebrand around proximity to Trump, trading Barbz loyalty for Rose Garden photo ops and Oval Office selfies.

But Friday night proved that no amount of White House access buys respect, only a seat close enough to get roasted by the man himself. The rapper’s post suggests she was in on the joke, but Minaj might not realize her new crew might be laughing at her and not with her.

‘This is Racism’: Trump Humiliates One of His Biggest Black Supporters as Nicki Minaj Becomes the Punchline at White House Dinner, She Responds