Journalist Don Lemon has hit back at rapper Nicki Minaj, branding her a “homophobic bigot” after she hurled an anti-gay slur at him on social media.
On Monday, 19 January, Minaj referred to Lemon as “DON ‘C* SUCKIN’ LEMON”** in a post on X, after he reported on protests targeting the presence of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) at Cities Church in St Paul, Minnesota. Minaj further claimed Lemon should be jailed, stating:
“He would never do that to any other religion.”
She shared the post alongside an image of the horror character Chucky wearing a wig.
Lemon, who is openly gay and married real estate agent Tim Malone in 2024, responded to the remarks in a TikTok video later that day.
“People have been asking me about responding to Nicki Minaj’s unhinged, homophobic tweet about me,” Lemon said, directly addressing Minaj in the clip.
“You are a homophobic bigot. You don’t care about African-Americans. You’re not an African-American… from what I know, you are reportedly an undocumented citizen, so you should be deported under Donald Trump’s rules.”
Minaj, whose legal name is Onika Tanya Maraj, was born in Trinidad and Tobago. During a 2024 TikTok livestream, she reportedly stated she was “not a citizen of America” despite having paid “millions of dollars” in taxes, and claimed she deserved “honorary citizenship… many thousands of years ago.”
Lemon didn’t stop there—he went on to highlight the criminal pasts of both Minaj’s husband and brother:
- Kenneth Petty, Minaj’s husband, is a level two registered sex offender in New York. He served time for attempted rape of a 16-year-old and was later sentenced to 10 years for manslaughter, spending four years in prison for a fatal shooting in 2002.
- Her brother, Jelani Maraj, was sentenced to 25 years in prison in 2020 for the rape of an 11-year-old girl.
“You have nerve to talk about me and what you think that I do?” Lemon said.
“Stop being a ‘pick me’. You should’ve put a ‘pick me’ doll on that damn tweet instead of a Chucky doll… I choose not to pick you, and so should Black people, and so should gay people.”
Despite criticism, Minaj refused to apologise, instead doubling down on the slur. In a now-deleted response to a fan on X, she said:
“I purposely wrote it that way b/c I knew that would be the only way to get the c*** suckas to post about it… I’m glad they’re angry. They’re about to get angrier.”
This latest controversy adds to a growing list of anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric from the 12-time Grammy-nominated artist.
In November, Minaj expressed support for Donald Trump, praising his concern for Christians in Nigeria and saying she felt a “deep sense of gratitude” for his advocacy of Christianity. She rebuked LGBTQ+ fans who questioned her, accusing them of making the issue “about [them] being gay”.
In December, Minaj criticised California Governor Gavin Newsom over his support for transgender youth and shared a White House video using her song “Va Va Voom” – despite the clip celebrating Trump’s anti-trans stance. That same month, she appeared at AmericaFest with Erika Kirk, wife of the late conservative activist Charlie Kirk, hailing Trump supporters as “the cool kids” and praising the former president’s administration as “full of people with heart and soul”.
