Nicki Minaj has decided that Gavin Newsom is her new favorite sparring partner, although he doesn’t appear quite as eager to engage in a full-on social media battle as she is. She has devoted more than two dozen tweets on X in recent days to slamming the California governor; his response thus far has been limited to a single message — posting a Megan Thee Stallion diss track originally directed at Minaj.
Newsom did not actually call out or directly refer to Minaj with his lone tweet having to do with her, but it was clear what it was in reference to. On Saturday, his personal account posted a message on X that simply consisted of an emoji of a face with the lips zipped up, suggesting he knew he was better off not speaking. But the 12-second video clip that accompanied the emoji spoke volumes. The footage was of Donald J. Trump and Jeffrey Epstein, set to a soundtrack of Megan Thee Stallion’s “Hiss,” a 2024 song widely understood as a fusillade in the war between collaborators-turned-combatants Minaj and Megan.
Newsom’s subtle but not too subtle rejoinder to Minaj came in response to the rapper — who has recently aligned herself with the Trump administration and MAGA messages — tweeting messages that called him “the guy running on wanting to see trans kids… GavOUT. Send in the next guy, I’m bored.” She had further tweeted that Newsom is “the cute boy who got everything handed to him b/c of how cute & sexy & hot & smoking he was… He thinks he’s Tom Cruise only difference is, his next mission IS impossible. He should get another leading role.”
After Newsom tweeted out Megan the Stallion’s “Hiss” diss, Minaj went to work declaring all-out war, encouraging her fans to take the governor on.
“See Barbz? I told you he was wicked,” she posted, after the cloaked Newsom response to her attacks. “Dear Barbz, Pls protect me from that wicked & evil man. Love, Barbie,” she added.
Dear Barbz,
Pls protect me from that wicked & evil man.
Love,
Barbie.
— Nicki Minaj (@NICKIMINAJ) December 13, 2025
She also issued other warnings to “Gavvy Pooh.” “Oh gavvy Pooh the ppl behind you clearly don’t care about you. I can go a lot deeper. Arch your back,” Minaj wrote. “Today you get another chance. Tmrw no more. I’d switch gears You & your entire team.”
They’re ready to make a career politician with everything to lose throw it all away—just like they did to everyone else before him—just to go against me.
What’s wild is that he can’t see how this will end.
I must be a pretty powerful gal.
Praise God.
It is well.
— Nicki Minaj (@NICKIMINAJ) December 13, 2025
Among the rapper’s other messages to or about her new nemesis:
— “Career politician at the brink of his moment realigns to become nothing more than a Nicki Minaj ANTI. OOF. So now he’s the guy running on ‘wanting to see trans kids’ AND willing to lower himself to becoming just another FEMALE RAPPER to get obliterated by NICKI MINAJ.”
— “Let’s wait…I think Gavvy’s still transitioning.”
— “They’re ready to make a career politician with everything to lose throw it all away—just like they did to everyone else before him—just to go against me. What’s wild is that he can’t see how this will end. I must be a pretty powerful gal. Praise God. It is well.”
But, despite the many tweets Minaj has posted in recent days, and her attempt to rile up her fan base against him, it appears that the governor is resisting further taking the bait.
Meanwhile, Minaj interrupted her string of anti-Newsom messages to further tweet out her support for the president and his team. “God bless this great nation,” she tweeted, while re-posting a message from “MAGA Voice” showing footage of Trump saluting while the national anthem was performed at the Army/Navy game. She also retweeted the White House’s own posts about “America’s Game.”
Minaj has been using the hashtag “#FreeChristians” in asserting that Christians are being systematically murdered in Nigeria, a cause that has been taken up largely by those on the right. She and vice president JD Vance have formed a mutual fan club over the matter, with Vance tweeting last week, “Nicki> Cardi,” arguing for her superiority over a fellow female rapper who has come out against the Trump administration.
Although merely posting the track “Hiss” may not have seemed like Newsom reacting to her slams proportionally, Minaj has reason to take the song personally. The lyrics of “Hiss” include a catty reference to “Megan’s law,” California legislation that strengthened the licensing of sex offenders in the state. Observers of the feud believed that it was Megan Thee Stallion’s none-too-oblique way of getting in a dig at Minaj’s husband, Kenneth Petty, who was once put on supervised probation for failing to register as a sex offender in California, in a case dating back to 1994.
In Newsom’s video, Megan Thee Stallion’s line about “Megan’s law” is accompanied by a still photo of Trump and Epstein together, with text about the content of the sex-offender law. There are no obvious references to Minaj in the video apart from the choice of song.
Minaj’s unusual evolution from anti-Trumper to major Trump fan was explored Monday in a Washington Post story titled “The MAGA-fication of Nicki Minaj.” The newspaper wrote, “Once an advocate for LGBTQ+ people and immigrants, the rapper has repeatedly praised an administration cracking down on the same people, and the White House is returning the love.”
