Don Lemon, Nicki Minaj Swap Insults on X After Anti-ICE Protest

by Jeroslyn JoVonn

January 20, 2026

She called for the journalist’s arrest for reporting from an anti‑ICE protest at a Minnesota church.

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Don Lemon and Nicki Minaj exchanged words o after the rapper called for Lemon to be jailed over his presence at an anti-ICE protest at a Minnesota church.

The former CNN host was called out on Jan. 19 after Minaj took to X to harshly criticize Lemon over his coverage of an anti-ICE protest that disrupted a church service in St. Paul, Minnesota.

“DON ‘C* S*** LEMON IS DISGUSTING. HOW DARE YOU? I WANT THAT THUG IN JAIL!!!!! HE WOULD NEVER DO THAT TO ANY OTHER RELIGION. LOCK HIM UP!!!!!” Minaj wrote.

Lemon, who says he attended the event solely to document it for his independent YouTube channel, responded by calling Minaj a “homophobic bigot” and noting her birth in Trinidad and Tobago, calling her an “undocumented citizen.”

“Nicki Minaj, stop talking about s*** for which you know nothing about. This is out of your depth. You are a homophobic bigot. You don’t care about African Americans, and 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.”

Lemon also referenced the criminal histories of Minaj’s husband, a registered sex offender, and her brother, Jelani Maraj, who was sentenced to 25 years in prison for sexually abusing his stepdaughter, and accused the rapper of aligning herself with the Republican Party.

“Nicki Minaj, get a life. Stop being a ‘pick me.’ You should have put a pick-me doll on that damn tweet instead of a Chucky doll, because you are nothing but a pick-me. And I pick. I choose not to pick you. And so should Black people, and so should gay people. [They] shouldn’t buy your music. Clock that,” he said.

Minaj later returned to X, saying she had made her post about Lemon deliberately abrasive, explaining it was the only way to get attention from certain users.

“And I purposely wrote it that way b/c I knew that would be the only way to get the c* s*** to post about it,” she wrote. “They would’ve all collectively ignored the despicable behavior displayed by Lemon head. I’m glad they’re angry. They’re about to get angrier.”

The controversy began after anti‑ICE protesters disrupted services at Cities Church in St. Paul on Jan. 18, accusing one of the church’s pastors of also serving as the acting field director for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in the region. Demonstrators, organized by Black Lives Matter Minnesota, chanted “ICE out” and “Justice for Renee Good”—referencing the Minnesota woman recently killed by an ICE agent.

Lemon insists he was covering the protest as a journalist and had no prior knowledge that the group would target the church, telling viewers in an Instagram video, “I have no affiliation with that organization. I didn’t even know they were going to this church until we followed them there.”

He released a statement to Fox News Digital, denouncing the criticism and standing by his journalism.

“It’s notable that I’ve been cast as the face of a protest I was covering as a journalist—especially since I wasn’t the only reporter there,” he said. “That framing is telling…If this much time and energy is going to be spent manufacturing outrage, it would be far better used investigating the tragic death of Renee Nicole Good—the very issue that brought people into the streets in the first place. I stand by my reporting.”

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