Nicki Minaj’s political transformation has reached full MAGA spectacle. The rapper who once criticized Donald Trump is now attacking New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, endorsing Hochul’s Republican opponent and promising Trump her loyalty “forever and ever.”

On Wednesday, Minaj called Hochul an “evil woman” and suggested Democrats should “forfeit her seat” even if the governor wins reelection. Three days earlier, Minaj appeared at a Michigan campaign rally and devoted much of her speech to praising Trump.

That posture represents quite an about face. In 2018, Minaj used the same social media account to endorse Hochul for lieutenant governor alongside then Gov. Andrew Cuomo, while condemning Trump’s immigration policy and describing herself as a former “illegal immigrant.”

Hochul remains aligned with the same broad political camp, while Trump has hardly abandoned his immigration agenda. The striking reversal raises an unavoidable question about what changed for Minaj, and whether ideology tells the entire story.

The clemency landscape offers one possible explanation, although there is no public evidence that Minaj has requested a pardon. Two close members of her family have criminal convictions, and their cases fall under the authority of two politicians Minaj has treated very differently.

Her husband, Kenneth Petty, pleaded guilty at age 16 to attempted rape. In 1995, he was convicted of multiple charges connected to the assault and served four and a half years in prison.

In November 2019, after Petty had married Minaj and moved to California, authorities pulled him over in Beverly Hills for a traffic violation. They discovered that he had not registered in California as a sex offender, which constituted a federal violation under the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act.

Because that failure to register was a federal crime, only the president can pardon it. That puts Trump, the politician Minaj now calls her “number one fan” favorite, in possession of a power directly relevant to her husband’s conviction.

Minaj’s older brother, Jelani Maraj, is serving 25 years to life after being convicted of repeatedly raping his 11 year old stepdaughter. The assaults allegedly occurred at his Long Island home, and the trials therefore took place in New York state courts.

That means clemency for Maraj could come only from New York’s governor. Hochul currently holds that office, while Minaj has endorsed the Republican trying to defeat her and demanded that Democrats surrender the seat even if Hochul wins.

Trump adviser Alex Bruesewitz rejected any suggestion of a pardon motive in May, calling it a “disgusting and disgraceful smear.” He added, “Nicki has never once asked the President for anything. She has only offered assistance and support. The insinuation that she’s looking for anything in return is total garbage.”

Minaj has offered other reasons for opposing Hochul, including a 2024 remark in which the governor said Black children in the Bronx “don’t even know what the word ‘computer’ is.” Hochul apologized for that remark almost immediately, while Minaj’s public outrage arrived two years later.

The rapper has also previously expressed a politically inconsistent collection of views involving vaccine hesitancy, claims of persecution and conservative Christianity. She said as recently as January that she is not an American citizen, meaning she cannot vote in United States elections.

Trump, meanwhile, has granted at least 1,700 pardons across his two terms, according to the source column. An ecosystem of fixers, lawyers, lobbyists and brokers has emerged around access to clemency, with some charging enormous fees while promising influence.

The relationship also gives Trump a famous former critic willing to stage public displays of loyalty. Minaj’s appearance aboard Air Force One and the staged video appearance that followed generated headlines about whether she might become the next press secretary, although the episode was presented as a joke.

Asked about Minaj’s attacks, Hochul pointed to the rapper’s 2018 endorsement and blamed Trump’s movement. “You can ask her how she’s been poisoned by Donald Trump,” Hochul said, later adding, “And I’ll just say, too much time at Trump rallies is pretty bad for people’s mental health.”

None of this proves that Minaj has sought a deal, and the public record contains no evidence that she has requested clemency. Still, the pardon powers line up rather neatly with her new political loyalties, making her sudden MAGA devotion worthy of more scrutiny than another celebrity endorsement.