Don Lemon did not mince his words when responding to Nicki Minaj hurling a homophobic slur his way over his coverage of an anti-ICE protest at a church in St. Paul, Minnesota.
In an interview with TMZ, the former CNN anchor, who is openly gay and married his longtime partner Tim Malone in 2024, ripped into the rapper, who recently made it clear she supports the Trump administration. “She called me: Don, C-sucker Lemon. It’s disgusting,” he said. “I think Nicki Minaj has made it very clear how she feels about African-Americans in this country—I don't think she's one of them, obviously—and she should, under Trump's rule, she should be deported because I don't think, reportedly, that she is a legal citizen here. She is undocumented.”
He alleged that Minaj has “shown her disdain for African-Americans,” and questioned why people continue to support her despite her worrying embrace of far-right rhetoric.
“Why are you supporting this homophobic, bigoted, ignorant woman? You should not be supporting her. Nicki Minaj, this is clearly out of her depth,” he continued. “She doesn’t understand politics, she doesn’t understand journalism, and I’m not surprised that she is weighing in on something that is beyond her capacity. … She will do anything that is expedient for her politically, and again, she’s ignorant. She doesn’t know what she’s talking about. She’s always weighing in on things that she doesn’t know about.”
Lemon also highlighted that Minaj is married to Kenneth Petty, who was convicted of rape in 1995 and is a registered sex offender.
“Nicki Minaj should just sit the fuck down, and, by the way, isn’t she married to an alleged pedophile?” he said. “She has the nerve to say something disparaging, something homophobic? I'm pretty sure that maybe that's part of the reason that she is cozying up to the Trump administration for some sort of leniency for her family members. And, it's just very transparent. So, Nicki Minaj, eff off, stop being a homophobic bigot. And, you know, get a life and some brains.”
Lemon could also be referring to her brother here. In 2022, Minaj’s brother, Jelani Maraj, was sentenced to 25 years to life after he was found guilty of raping an 11-year-old, per USA Today.
Minaj appeared furious on X, formerly Twitter, after footage of Lemon covering a church protest in St. Paul went viral. “DON ‘COCK SUCKIN’ LEMON IS DISGUSTING,” she wrote in all-caps alongside a picture showing Chucky from the Child’s Play series. “HOW DARE YOU? I WANT THAT THUG IN JAIL!!!!! HE WOULD NEVER DO THAT TO ANY OTHER RELIGION. LOCK HIM UP!!!!!”
Lemon reported from the Cities Church in St. Paul, Minnesota on Sunday (Jan. 18), where tensions are high following the fatal shooting of Renee Good earlier this month. In the livestream, he followed the protesters as they went to the church to protest the presence of David Easterwood, the acting field office director for ICE in St. Paul. After clips from the protest went viral, Lemon wanted to clear the air on the “fake right-wing propaganda” about his reporting, which he claimed accused him of leading the protest.
He has stressed that he had no ties to the organization that did the protest and was just there to report on the situation and speak to the people involved.