Trump calls El-Sayed a 'jihadist' at Michigan rally as Nicki Minaj joins him onstage

A flight, a video and a job tease

Nicki Minaj flew with Donald Trump aboard Air Force One on Sunday, 25 October, on the way to a campaign rally in Port Huron, Michigan. The rapper has publicly backed the president since 2025 and was welcomed to the White House in July 2026. During the flight she filmed a short video with an aide, posted to X, in which she played a candidate interviewing for the White House press secretary job. That job is open because Katie Zacharia left the role five days after a shaky public debut. At the rally, Minaj said Trump had changed the energy of the country.

Press secretary tease

White House director of communications Steven Cheung shared the clip on X and said he believed the administration had found its next press secretary.

“I think we may have found the new White House Press Secretary!”

Minaj reposted the message with an American flag and a laughing emoji with a drop of sweat. No nomination has been announced, so a formal appointment remains unclear. On the flight she praised the president's business background and his ability to recover from his own financial difficulties, and she said his firmness with foreign leaders impressed her.

Rally attacks on El-Sayed

Trump used the rally to back Republican Senate candidate Mike Rogers and repeatedly called Democratic nominee Abdul El-Sayed a 'jihadist'. He urged thousands of supporters to fight El-Sayed the way Americans battled terrorists on 9/11, invoking Todd Beamer, a Michigan resident who died on Flight 93. Trump claimed El-Sayed wanted to impose sharia law in the state and accused him of belonging to the Muslim Brotherhood. El-Sayed has disavowed the group, and no evidence of any affiliation has been presented. David Beamer, Todd Beamer's father, joined Trump onstage and called El-Sayed and the Democratic Socialists of America 'the enemy'.

“When God made vocal cords, he did not make them for 25 or 26 of these in a period of 10 days.”

Trump said the rallies in the run-up to the midterms were straining his voice. El-Sayed, an epidemiologist, has criticised similar remarks by Trump as Islamophobic.

Husted and Minaj remarks

Trump again praised the rear end of Ohio Senator Jon Husted, a former college football player who was not at the event, after making similar comments in Kentucky just over a week earlier. He then turned to Minaj and said her rear end was 'hard to miss', asking her to stand as the crowd cheered. Minaj wore a gold-coloured Gucci-branded suit and led the crowd in chanting Trump's name and those of Republican candidates in Michigan. Trump called the media coverage of his Husted comments 'fake news' and said he hoped Nicki was not insulted.

“He's given us a future to look forward to.”

Minaj made the remark at the rally, where she also said the country needed all of the Republican candidates to be elected.

Midterms and what comes next

The Michigan Senate race between Rogers and El-Sayed is tight, with the midterm elections on 3 November. Former president Barack Obama held a rally with El-Sayed on Saturday, 24 October, one of the first of this cycle. Trump's schedule has included rallies on nearly every day in recent weeks, which he said had strained his voice. The White House press secretary post remains open, and no formal nomination for Minaj has been made.