Did Trump say Nicki Minaj has ‘beautiful’ butt during campaign rally?

As the U.S. midterm elections approached in late October, comments President Donald Trump made about peoples’ bodies during his speeches at GOP campaign rallies gained widespread attention.

Trump’s fixation on the physical attributes of the men and the women around him appeared to reflect his party’s focus on gender roles and masculinity more broadly. “I examined his a** and then I looked at his shoulders,” Trump said of Sen. Jon Husted, R-Ohio, on Oct. 17, eliciting a roar of applause. “I then patted him on the shoulder, and it was like a piece of steel. I’m still recovering.”

By late October, another remark attributed to Trump, 80, circulated about rapper Nicki Minaj, who he told rallygoers had “one hell of a beautiful a**.” The quote spread across multiple social media sites and prompted derisive comments from late-night talk show host Jimmy Kimmel.

The quote was correctly attributed to the president. Trump extolled the beauty of Minaj’s body while stumping for Republican candidates in Michigan on Oct. 25. Videos of the event are widely available, including on C-SPAN (Trump’s full comments beginning at 52:49).

“By the way, I looked at one hell of a beautiful a** before — Nicki Minaj,” he said (at 0:20 below), pointing to a Gucci-clad Minaj in the audience, who covered her mouth and laughed. “That’s hard to miss. That — stand up Nicki. That’s hard to miss.” The crowd laughed and whistled as she stood and waved.

Though Minaj has yet to openly address Trump’s comments as of this writing, she did later join him on stage and pledged her allegiance to him, all the way through a theoretical third term (at 1:44:01). “I will continue to support you forever and ever,” she said. “If you run again, I will support you again.”

Minaj, an outspoken supporter of Trump and the GOP in recent years, emerged from Air Force One with the president on Oct. 25 and posted a video from inside the aircraft, where she sat down with White House spokesperson Steven Cheung to answer questions about Trump’s role in the leadup to the midterms.

When asked about “these fake news polls,” Minaj told Cheung: “We don’t pay those polls any mind, obviously they are there to deter our voters from going out and casting their vote.”

As of this writing, the majority of polls show voters favoring Democrats. The party out of power typically gains ground in midterm elections, according to New York Times polling researcher Caroline Soler.

Sources