Trump campaign adviser Alex Bruesewitz shared a behind-the-scenes story on the Jack Neel Podcast about a proposed social media response to Cardi B’s endorsement of then-Vice President Kamala Harris during the 2024 campaign, claiming former President Donald Trump rejected the idea because he “didn’t want to hurt Cardi B’s feelings.”
Bruesewitz began by discussing Cardi B’s appearance at a Harris campaign rally.
“But Cardi B endorsed Kamala Harris on stage at a rally and she could barely read her speech,” he said. “And her teleprompter went down and she totally forgot what she was going to say. And so she was waiting for the teleprompter to come back up. And when she realized the teleprompter wasn’t coming back up, she started reading the speech from her phone… But anyway, so she endorsed Kamala.”
Bruesewitz said he pays close attention to pop culture and saw an opportunity to create a viral moment.
“I pay attention to pop culture stuff,” he explained. “And obviously there’s this ongoing kind of a beef between Cardi B and Nicki Minaj. I was thinking… it was trendy, you know, it’s all over TikTok and it’s all over X and it’s a fun thing to play off of.”
According to Bruesewitz, the idea led him to wonder whether Nicki Minaj might be willing to speak with Trump.
“I just had the idea one day,” he recalled. “I was like, I wonder if Nicki Minaj likes Donald Trump.”
He said he reached out to Amber Rose for help making contact.
“I scrambled to try to get her phone number,” Bruesewitz said. “I called my friend—it was actually Amber Rose. I said, ‘Amber, you saw Cardi just endorsed Kamala. I want to talk to Nicki. Can you get me in touch?’ And Amber got me Nicki’s phone number.”
Bruesewitz then made what he described as a cold call to the rapper.
“I cold-called Nicki,” he said. “‘Hey, this is Alex Bruesewitz with President Trump’s team. I was wondering if you’d be open to having a conversation with the president.’ And she said yes.”
He described several failed attempts to connect Trump and Minaj on a conference call.
“Later that night, the president was flying to a speech,” Bruesewitz said. “I called the president. I said, ‘Mr. President, I have Nicki Minaj on the other line.’ He goes, ‘Okay, connect the call, Alex.'”
The first attempt failed.
“Connected the call. Call dropped.”
A second attempt also failed.
“I call him back… ‘Sorry, the call dropped.’ Connected him again. And call failed again.”
After a third unsuccessful attempt, Bruesewitz said he simply texted Trump Minaj’s phone number.
“I ended up just texting the president Nicki Minaj’s number, and he called her.”
According to Bruesewitz, Trump and Minaj then spoke privately.
“They spoke for 25 minutes. I have no idea what they talked about,” he said. “He called me back afterwards. He said he had a very good conversation with her.”
Bruesewitz said his goal had been to capitalize on the moment with a humorous TikTok referencing Cardi B’s endorsement.
“What I wanted to do, I wanted the president to do a TikTok where he reacts to Cardi endorsing Kamala,” he said. “To show you a little bit of Trump’s—like who Trump is actually as a person.”
He said he pitched a specific line to Trump.
“I told him, ‘Sir, this is going to go so viral. It’s going to be the number one… What I want you to say, sir, I want you to say, “Who’s Cardi B? I’m a Nicki Minaj fan.”‘”
However, Bruesewitz said Trump declined the idea.
“And the president said to me,” Bruesewitz recalled, “‘Alex, I like Nicki, but that’s mean. I don’t know Cardi.'”
According to Bruesewitz, Trump ultimately refused to film the TikTok because “he didn’t want to hurt Cardi B’s feelings.”
