Gaines for Girls with Riley Gaines - Nicki Minaj, James Charles and the New Rules of Cancel Culture ｜ The Riley Gaines Show

00:00:00.880 Now streaming on Paramount+.

00:00:03.060 Beth and Rip are back in Dutton Ranch.

00:00:06.840 This life here is going to work, isn't it?

00:00:09.520 We'll make it work.

00:00:11.440 Starring Kelly Riley.

00:00:12.880 The legacy is a beautiful thing, but only if it survives.

00:00:16.080 Cole Hauser.

00:00:16.940 What's going to work?

00:00:17.840 Ed Harris.

00:00:18.660 Family is the only thing we're fighting for.

00:00:20.760 And Annette Bening.

00:00:21.640 I can make this a lot harder for all y'all.

00:00:23.960 And peace will have to wait.

00:00:25.600 Dutton Ranch.

00:00:26.440 New series now streaming on Paramount+.

00:00:30.000 what do james charles and nikki minaj have in common they just cannot be cancelled whether

00:00:39.820 you see it as a good thing or a bad thing i actually don't think cancel culture is real

00:00:44.760 or at least not in the way that some people pretend that it is and look i'm not telling you

00:00:49.020 that some people haven't had their lives ruined or upended you know exiled from public life or

00:00:55.480 their careers torch or reputations that haven't been destroyed because of course yes there are

00:01:00.740 some people who have experienced cancel culture in that way and some of them rightfully so by the

00:01:06.720 way but others not so much there's a sector of celebrities or influencers or athletes or

00:01:12.820 entertainers or comedians who bounce back again and again and again stronger than ever with their

00:01:18.260 fan bases intact and their bank accounts seem to be doing just fine so the real question that i

00:01:23.360 want to unpack with you guys today isn't, is cancel culture real? It's more so who does cancel

00:01:29.860 culture actually apply to and why do the rules seem to bend for certain people? We're going to

00:01:35.800 look at some patterns and the hypocrisy and what this means for regular people. Maybe regular people

00:01:41.560 like you who don't have millions of followers to cushion the fall. James Charles. I don't know why

00:01:48.740 I feel inclined to just call him Jimmy Chuck. It feels right. James Charles. This is like

00:01:55.860 the ultimate serial comeback kid who just stepped in all of the drama again surrounding Spirit

00:02:02.900 Airlines, which I'm going to help give you guys some context to that. But first, who is James

00:02:07.700 Charles? If you're not deep in the beauty influencer world, or honestly, if you don't

00:02:13.100 spend much time on TikTok, then maybe you don't know who this is. This guy's been around for

00:02:18.380 forever, or at least as long as I can remember, on social media, at least. And in that amount of

00:02:23.580 time, he has had more controversies than most people have had hot meals. And he just keeps

00:02:29.060 coming back. So let's run through a couple of them really quick. So you can kind of see the

00:02:33.820 pattern. James Charles' first cancellation, or at least the first one that I can remember was back

00:02:38.620 in 2017. He had tweeted out, and what I think was a very obvious attempt to be funny, he tweeted

00:02:47.160 out, I can't believe that we're going to Africa today. What if we get Ebola? First of all, he was

00:02:53.240 17 years old at the time of this post. Okay. Frontal lobe, not yet fully developed, but that

00:02:58.640 did not stop the Twitter trolls from being perpetually offended. So what do you do when

00:03:05.060 you're 17 years old and you're under fire for what I really do believe was intended to be a joke 0.90

00:03:09.920 or at least funny dialogue you issue a lengthy apology statement recognizing your white cis 0.77

00:03:17.620 male privilege this is like a humiliation ritual at this point no i'm not kidding he said as a white

00:03:24.000 cis male i recognize my privilege and i would never want to take that for granted uh actually

00:03:29.400 even upon the conclusion of his trip he posted a picture on instagram and in the caption of this

00:03:34.960 picture, uh, he addressed again, some of the comments that he made and saying how he went

00:03:39.640 to some of the schools in South Africa, got to learn more about their education and their schooling

00:03:43.560 system and their everyday lives and how eyeopening it really was for him. And, um, he toured some of

00:03:49.920 the campuses and he sat down, he says this in his Instagram comment or caption. He says that he sat

00:03:55.280 down with a large group of kids and talked to them about his ignorant comment, which degraded 0.98

00:03:59.160 their continent. Can you just like picture that? The visual, the visual of James Charles, 2017 0.96

00:04:06.660 James Charles. We have a picture on screen of that era of James Charles. This was a guy sitting in

00:04:14.160 like a kumbaya circle with a bunch of little African children who likely had zero idea that

00:04:18.720 he even made these comments. Uh, nevermind the fact that he was concerned of catching Ebola

00:04:23.580 in Africa. Actually, I put the prompt in AI in Grok. I was curious what it would spit out. And

00:04:31.000 in a matter of seconds, I think the prompt was like, put 2017 James Charles in a South African

00:04:36.500 school speaking to students. And this is what it spit out. Like, this is so funny to me, the fact

00:04:42.840 that something like this actually happened, or at least according to James Charles. Anyways,

00:04:47.240 that was his first cancellation, first apology. Now, moving on to 2019, I just remember this being

00:04:54.360 like the biggest cancellation moment in YouTube beauty history. James Charles versus Tati Westbrook.

00:05:04.160 Tati was one of like the OG beauty YouTubers. And James even says himself that she was like a mentor

00:05:10.700 or a mother figure to him when he was becoming very big online and on YouTube.

00:05:17.060 She actually helped him promote his career pretty early on.

00:05:20.220 She invited him to events.

00:05:22.200 She defended him publicly.

00:05:24.140 Remember, this is in 2019.

00:05:26.260 So at the time, James was around 19.

00:05:29.060 I think he and I were the same age.

00:05:30.840 We were both born in 2000.

00:05:32.020 But nonetheless, he was one of the fastest growing YouTubers at the time.

00:05:36.420 But Tati, she was considered like a beauty community elder, if that's a good way to put it. 0.96

00:05:44.360 Also important to note that Tati owned a vitamin supplement company called Halo Beauty.

00:05:50.420 Well, during Coachella of 2019, James ended up posting an Instagram ad for Sugar Bear Hair Vitamins,

00:05:56.780 which is a direct competitor of Tati's Halo Beauty Vitamins.

00:06:01.520 James actually claimed that Sugar Bear Hair helped him get through security and VIP assistance at Coachella.

00:06:07.580 So he posted this sponsorship as a thank you to Sugar Bear Hair.

00:06:12.340 I hope you're following. I know this is a lot.

00:06:13.860 But Tati, when James posted this, she saw this as like the ultimate act of betrayal.

00:06:20.400 Because, again, she had supported him for years.

00:06:22.860 She never charged him for mentorship or for help or for promotion.

00:06:26.980 And quite frankly, she expected loyalty, especially against a direct competitor of

00:06:33.040 her brand. So it seems pretty petty. And that's definitely what people thought it was at first,

00:06:39.800 kind of just like the influencer business drama, but it escalated massively because Tati ended up 0.94

00:06:45.980 posting a 43 minute video, basically publicly ending their friendship. The video was titled,

00:06:52.400 which this is so iconic, it was titled Bye Sister, which if you know anything about James Charles,

00:06:56.800 The whole like high sister is kind of his tagline.

00:07:00.200 So the video went on to accuse James of being manipulative and fame obsessed and disrespectful and using his celebrity status.

00:07:08.580 Get this in inappropriate ways with straight men.

00:07:13.340 Here's one of the viral clips that came from it.

00:07:17.760 Visit BetMGM Casino and check out the newest exclusive.

00:07:21.720 The Price is Right Fortune Pick.

00:07:23.400 Bet MGM and GameSense remind you to play responsibly.

00:07:26.660 19 plus to wager.

00:07:28.000 Ontario only.

00:07:29.080 Please play responsibly.

00:07:30.300 If you have questions or concerns about your gambling or someone close to you,

00:07:33.420 please contact Connects Ontario at 1-866-531-2600 to speak to an advisor.

00:07:39.440 Free of charge.

00:07:40.380 Bet MGM operates pursuant to an operating agreement with iGaming Ontario. 0.79

00:07:45.860 My God, you tried to trick a straight man into thinking he's gay yet again. 0.94

00:07:50.940 and somehow you're the victim. 1.00

00:07:53.880 You know, it's really disgusting 0.86

00:07:55.440 to manipulate someone's sexuality, 0.72

00:07:59.920 especially when they are still, you know,

00:08:02.200 emerging into adulthood.

00:08:04.060 Again, when you watch this, it really does seem so petty,

00:08:07.980 but it resulted in James losing over 3 million subscribers

00:08:12.480 on YouTube in just a matter of days,

00:08:14.640 while Tati gained millions.

00:08:16.420 Anyways, James ended up posting a emotional apology

00:08:20.840 video to his YouTube. If you're keeping track, this is the second feud, the second cancellation

00:08:27.280 and the second apology. I just remember this apology being mocked so heavily online because

00:08:34.140 it seemed so insincere, like the fake tears, all the things. But he was able to show his side of

00:08:41.080 things in this video. And I think collectively, the internet actually agreed that they were maybe

00:08:44.920 a little too quick to cancel James. Okay, now fast forwarding to 2021. These are the grooming

00:08:52.620 allegations. I think the allegations that James Charles is now most known for outside of his

00:08:59.140 beauty brand, which is entirely separate from the allegations that Tati Westbrook alleged.

00:09:04.400 She alleged him using his influence to manipulate straight men. This is not that. In 2021, multiple

00:09:12.320 teenage boys came forward and began posting TikToks and screenshots alleging that James

00:09:18.080 Charles had sent them sexually explicit images or messages or Snapchats and that he flirted with them

00:09:24.960 pretty aggressively, that he requested photos from them and even continued these conversations

00:09:30.360 after learning that they were, in fact, underage. Well, James was very quick to naturally to attempt

00:09:38.720 to clear his name from this, saying that he would never intentionally pursue minors, that he,

00:09:44.380 these allegations of grooming that they were just false and that he had been deceived

00:09:47.980 about their age. Well, more and more teenagers began to come forward, again, with screenshots

00:09:55.020 and stories alleging inappropriate interactions. So James ended up posting another YouTube video.

00:10:01.740 This time it was titled Holding Myself Accountable. And in this video, he admitted that he did in fact

00:10:07.880 exchange explicit messages with two underage individuals. Hold the phone. We're just going

00:10:14.420 to stop right there for a second, because if this cancellation was not the one to put the nail in

00:10:20.020 the coffin, to put his career in the grave, then honestly, I don't know what would be.

00:10:25.460 We're getting there because there is more, more cancellations. But this was the final straw for

00:10:31.580 me specifically. He did continue to deny intentional grooming, sticking by the fact

00:10:37.160 that he believed that they were both over the age of 18, but he did say that he acknowledged that

00:10:43.040 he failed to properly verify their ages. He called his own behavior reckless and desperate,

00:10:50.140 but the internet is not that forgiving on this topic, and rightfully so. People interpreted 0.94

00:10:55.320 this video as confirmation that the broader allegations have actual substance to them.

00:11:02.040 And it was actually because of this video, the holding myself accountable video that YouTube temporarily demonetized him, his channel, Morphe cut business ties with him.

00:11:14.140 And he stepped away from or was maybe forced out of several different business projects that he was working on.

00:11:19.900 So his reputation definitely took a major hit at the time.

00:11:24.180 But like a roach, he just doesn't die.

00:11:28.100 he comes back, he returns to content creation, and he rebuilds his audience, especially on TikTok.

00:11:34.960 So we have really short memories. I've even talked about this before, even in the news cycle

00:11:39.620 with what's going on, looking at the assassination of Charlie Kirk. Our memories are so short,

00:11:46.160 where people faulted Erica for not showing up to the University of Georgia turning point event

00:11:51.260 with, I believe, the vice president, because there were security threats that her security team 0.92

00:11:57.100 didn't feel confident that they could secure the venue or some of the travel plans that were 0.89

00:12:02.460 necessary in getting there. They didn't feel confident in being able to protect her from

00:12:07.460 some of the threats that I guess had been made relevant to the team. She was ridiculed online

00:12:14.180 for that, for not being there. Have we forgotten that her husband was publicly and graphically

00:12:20.460 assassinated like what, maybe six or seven months ago at the time? Same thing with President Trump's

00:12:26.900 most recent assassination attempt at the white house correspondence dinner that whole fiasco was

00:12:31.360 out of the news cycle in like three days uh our attention spans and our memories are so so short

00:12:38.540 this was a billboard in la calling him out at the time like imagine how humiliating that would be

00:12:46.500 if you're james charles but again if the allegations are true which i'm not here to weigh in

00:12:50.860 on that although i will say i certainly unfollowed james charles after these allegations came to

00:12:55.540 light, I think that's the least of the concerns of him being humiliated. Anyways, okay, if you're

00:13:03.800 following the pattern, it's say something or do something ignorant, or that showcases your white 0.85

00:13:10.440 male privilege, or something criminal, or alleged criminal, then you have an apology, then you have 0.88

00:13:16.600 a short break, and then you come back, and you come back with high engagement. Anyways, Spirit

00:13:20.880 airlines just shut down. They laid off thousands of workers. Well, one former employee, her name

00:13:27.140 is Amber. She DMed James Charles on Instagram with a link to her GoFundMe. She stated that

00:13:33.480 she lost her job, that she was struggling and she asked for a donation. Well, James took that

00:13:39.580 private message and he posted a rant on TikTok, calling her a lazy piece of SHIT and mocked her 1.00

00:13:46.900 In a now deleted video, he laughed about it and basically told her to get a real job 1.00

00:13:51.460 in the most, I believe, tone-deaf way possible.

00:13:54.460 Let's watch it.

00:13:55.220 I'm really struggling right now because Spirit Airlines just fell out for bankruptcy

00:13:59.260 and I have lost my job.

00:14:02.060 Here's a GoFundMe link.

00:14:03.600 Any donations help?

00:14:08.160 I'm sure they do, sweetheart.

00:14:09.640 I'm sure they do.

00:14:10.520 You know what else would help you?

00:14:11.840 Getting another job.

00:14:12.920 Like I said, the video is now deleted because the backlash was intense. He lost like 130,000

00:14:20.420 followers pretty much immediately. People called it obnoxious and heartless and privileged. And so

00:14:27.360 what do you do when you're called privileged and you're a white man on the internet? If you followed

00:14:31.800 the pattern thus far, you got it. He publicly apologized. And then actually he privately DMed

00:14:37.440 Amber. Uh, we've got a picture of his DM to her on the screen. Uh, you can see here, he admitted

00:14:43.160 that what he did was disgraceful. He says it was out of control and completely effing unnecessary.

00:14:48.860 Uh, he actually donated, I think $5,000 to her GoFundMe. Uh, he tried to push for, you know,

00:14:54.580 other people to donate as well, but here's the kicker. She rejected the apology. Uh, she never

00:15:00.340 responded to that DM that he sent. Uh, she just posted a video to her own account, uh, basically

00:15:06.240 publicly shaming James, I guess, in a revenge attempt and posting his private message on TikTok

00:15:12.880 and said that the embarrassment that he caused her, it still sticks with her. And so she said,

00:15:18.460 I hear your apology. I just don't accept it. I want to say this without y'all getting mad.

00:15:22.780 I actually don't think that James was in the wrong in the core idea. Free handouts are so

00:15:30.980 tired. We live in a world where people just like expect celebrities or influencers to be walking

00:15:37.140 ATMs for every hardship. It's impossible. That would be impossible. How would you expect James

00:15:43.240 or I guess any celebrity to go through their DMs and pick and choose which people to donate to

00:15:49.800 without knowing the people at all, by the way, who knows if this girl's story, which now it's

00:15:55.020 proven itself to be true. But at the time when James receives this message, who's to say that

00:16:00.780 it's actually true or accurate or verifiable? How do you vet these things? It's impossible

00:16:05.640 to be able to do this in a manner without making somebody or everybody mad at you.

00:16:11.680 So sue me. I actually kind of agree with James that not every single sob story deserves a check

00:16:18.800 from a stranger, a stranger that you don't know, a stranger that this woman, Amber,

00:16:24.040 She didn't follow James, by the way. She didn't follow him on TikTok or social media, at least in what James is saying. So which not saying that's a prerequisite necessarily, but I can imagine this is how I'm picturing it went in my head. I'm picturing that Amber copy and pasted this message, this with the link to her GoFundMe and sent it to probably tons of influencers or celebrities.

00:16:47.800 So I agree with James that not every single sob story deserves a check from a stranger

00:16:53.180 just because they slid into your DMs.

00:16:55.400 But of course, I do believe his delivery was horrible.

00:16:59.040 Yes, I do think it was tone deaf.

00:17:00.620 Yes, I do think it was obnoxious.

00:17:02.500 And posting the rant publicly, I get messages like this often.

00:17:06.520 And the initial reaction that I feel when I see these messages is not rage.

00:17:12.280 Okay, I don't get angry when I see these.

00:17:14.440 I just ignore it because I'm a normal human being. Unless I feel like there's a way I can help,

00:17:20.600 I don't generally feel overly keen to send money to random people just because they're asking me to.

00:17:27.740 I want, if that's something that I choose to do, I want that to be entirely led

00:17:31.300 by my own intrinsic desire and to be prayerfully considered. But if there are other ways to help

00:17:38.380 strangers who message me online, like amplifying a message or helping make connections that I can

00:17:44.260 make. I'm happy to do that. But for the most part, I just ignore the message. I don't get angry about

00:17:50.560 it, which is what I would have imagined James would have done in this scenario. You really

00:17:54.700 have like two options, at least two options that make sense when you receive a message like this.

00:17:59.660 Number one, you ignore it. That's what I think most people would do. Or number two, you donate.

00:18:04.580 And actually that's the option that I think James Charles would have gone with prior to seeing it

00:18:08.760 unfold in this way. When someone has an ego as big as he does, I thought he would have donated

00:18:15.420 and gone online to talk about how he donated. Oh, look, I'm so great. I'm so awesome. I'm helping

00:18:19.720 this girl. Spirit Airlines just shut down. Let's prop them up. This woman lost her job and I'm the

00:18:24.900 one who's dragging her up by her collar here. That's what I was apt to believe that he would 0.93

00:18:31.820 have done, but that's not at all what he did. He turned a private ask into a public humiliation

00:18:37.920 ritual when he really should have just ignored the message, deleted it, moved on. That's where

00:18:43.460 everything went off the rails. But honestly, Amber should thank James for responding in the

00:18:49.560 way that he did because now her GoFundMe has over $40,000. But that's the beauty of living in

00:18:56.880 America. If people want to give their money to Amber and she is willing to accept their money, 0.99

00:19:01.720 then who am I to criticize? So long as I don't have to pay for it. So long as it's not my taxpayer

00:19:07.580 dollars going to Amber, and no one's being harmed, and it's not illegal, then I don't really care

00:19:11.680 how Amber gets her money. Now, we're pretty fresh off the heels of this, so I don't know what the

00:19:17.540 recourse for James Charles is going to be, but I do know that he's followed the same pattern thus

00:19:22.420 far. I'll repeat it. Controversy, apology video or post, short disappearance, which that's the

00:19:29.400 phase that we're in right now, and then he's back with the same high engagement. I think that's what

00:19:36.120 we can expect next. And at this point, it's really not even shocking anymore. His audience,

00:19:40.500 they stick around. But the bigger question is why? Why do they do it? They do it, number one,

00:19:47.160 because he's entertaining. He offers something different than a lot of influencers, especially

00:19:52.100 beauty influencers. He delivers on the drama that I think people so innately crave. Plus,

00:19:59.600 he doesn't grovel forever. He appears to be pretty independent in his thinking. He said

00:20:04.900 things in the past that definitely align with the other side of the aisle. And he's critiqued,

00:20:09.140 I think, some things on that side of the aisle. He has a very loyal fan base, despite the fact

00:20:14.500 that he's been alleged a groomer of boys. It's just that entertainment value that keeps feeding

00:20:23.580 the algorithm, James Charles or Jimmy Chuck. That's what I'm going to call him. Feels right.

00:20:31.300 All right, you guys, I want to talk to you about something that I know a lot of people

00:20:34.220 are quietly struggling with, which is private student loan debt. You've probably heard me

00:20:38.420 mention my friends at Why Refi before. What they're doing is incredible. If you are stuck

00:20:43.860 with a private student loan where the monthly payment is way higher than what you can actually

00:20:48.060 afford, or maybe you've fallen behind, or maybe you're in default, just know you are not alone

00:20:53.280 and you're not out of options. Why Refi? They work with people exactly in your same situation.

00:20:59.220 They sit down with you one-on-one to help you craft a custom payment plan.

00:21:03.960 They refinance private student loans that other places will not even touch, and they

00:21:08.440 build a payment plan around, again, what you can afford.

00:21:11.360 And the best part is they don't care about your credit score.

00:21:15.000 So if this debt has been weighing on you, it doesn't have to be that way.

00:21:19.140 Go to yrefy.com, that is Y-R-E-F-Y.com, and be sure to tell them that Riley from the Riley

00:21:24.260 Gaines Show sent you.

00:21:25.060 okay now let's move on to someone who proves the other side of this coin the second case study that 0.94

00:21:32.740 we're going to be looking at that's Nicki Minaj the queen who refuses to bow down no matter what

00:21:38.880 she says or no matter who she supports she has said things and done things that you would think

00:21:44.660 would bury most celebrities or musicians or artists but somehow she's still standing she's

00:21:52.160 still massive. She's still dropping heat. Okay. Nikki has a laundry list of feuds, uh, that would 0.95

00:21:57.840 end most careers. I think she's gotten into it with Miley Cyrus, Megan Thee Stallion, Mariah Carey. 0.97

00:22:02.780 Actually, I can remember last year, she had like a three day meltdown with Cardi B, uh, where it got

00:22:08.360 intense and heated. They were going after each other's kids and families. Uh, she caught massive

00:22:14.300 heat back in 2021 for vaccine, what they called misinformation. Uh, that's been following her

00:22:22.040 ever since, uh, she's received accusations of transphobia, which that's like the easiest

00:22:28.060 accusation to receive. Okay. You just have to believe in reality, but nonetheless, she has

00:22:32.660 said things like, if you're born a boy, be a boy. Uh, she's criticized gender affirming care

00:22:37.540 or what I prefer to call unregulated child butchery for minors. Uh, of course, and you 0.99

00:22:44.020 all know this, she has openly supported President Trump. That's like career suicide in the music

00:22:49.260 industry, or at least we've been led to believe that. She's promoted his administration, what

00:22:54.580 they're getting done. Actually, she was announced a role spotlighting Christian persecution in

00:23:00.720 Nigeria alongside U.S. officials. She's shown up at Turning Point events. I was there at AmFest

00:23:06.080 when she walked out hand in hand on stage with Erica. Well, there was a Time interview that came

00:23:12.060 out last week titled How Nicki Minaj Went MAGA, which before we get into that, I want to shout

00:23:18.260 out Alex Berzwitz. He has been if which if you don't know who he is, he's a senior Trump advisor.

00:23:24.040 But the unique thing about about him is that he's 29. Therefore, he has a real eye for understanding

00:23:30.800 what draws in young people. If you can remember leading up to the 2024 election during the

00:23:38.880 the campaign period. You had President Trump appearing with Theo Vaughn and Sean Ryan and Joe

00:23:44.700 Rogan. We had Amber Rose at the RNC. You had Brett Favre endorsing the president. And I'm generally

00:23:51.200 of the mind, and I've talked about this on the show before, that celebrity endorsements typically

00:23:56.040 have the opposite effect. But the way it was done with President Trump, especially in comparison with

00:24:01.720 Kamala Harris's campaign, where she had Megan Thee Stallion on stage, shaking her butt around 1.00

00:24:09.060 in ways that mine would never be able to move. That's a little less tasteful than President 1.00

00:24:14.960 Trump doing photo ops with Mike Tyson, or Zach Bryan, or Shane Gillis, or playing a round of

00:24:22.000 golf with Saquon Barkley. But the brains behind all of that was Alex. So he has been, I think,

00:24:29.760 really, really critical in helping cut through to young people in a way that politicians

00:24:33.760 generally haven't been able to, at least historically, haven't been able to.

00:24:38.880 Anyways, this time piece, it highlights the role that he had in bringing Nikki on the Trump train

00:24:44.340 as well. It describes her transformation as organic, of course, which I'll get into that.

00:24:51.720 Some of the things that ultimately she experienced that led her to even being curious of supporting

00:24:57.380 the president and the conservative movement, but also the kind of deliberate strategy implemented

00:25:03.220 by the president's political operation to bring on Nicki Minaj. The experience that I was referring

00:25:09.780 to that Nicki said really flipped everything for her was her home being swatted multiple times.

00:25:17.100 What does that really mean? It means danger. It means that guns were being drawn. Big men with

00:25:24.660 guns show up on her doorstep in demand, and it means that her family and her children were

00:25:29.940 terrified. They were put at risk. This ended up in her reaching out to Governor Gavin Newsom.

00:25:36.480 Her home was, of course, in California, and she wanted help. She wanted advice. She wanted to

00:25:40.240 prevent this from happening again, and so she reached out to Governor Newsom, and what did she

00:25:44.800 receive? Rosen lasagna, medium power, 15 minutes. Sounds like Ojo time. Let's play. Feel the fun

00:25:53.920 with play ojo the online casino with all the latest slot and live casino games what you win

00:25:58.960 is yours to keep with no wagering requirements instant payouts and no minimum withdrawals hey

00:26:04.440 i just won honey forget about the lasagna let's celebrate 19 plus ontario please play responsibly

00:26:11.980 concerned about your gambling or that of someone close to you call 1-866-531-2600 or visit conx

00:26:14.680 ontario.ca crickets she received crickets she was ignored and while governor newsom ignored her

00:26:20.920 request for help. It was people like Congresswoman Anna Polina Luna, a Republican member of Congress 0.93

00:26:26.700 who responded and did offer assistance. Nikki clarifies that she had been privately leaning

00:26:32.740 conservative for years, but she hid it because the music industry was overwhelmingly pressuring

00:26:39.800 celebrities to publicly align with the Democrats. Actually, she said that the music industry is a

00:26:45.840 straight up democratic family that punishes anyone who steps out of line. So that led to her really

00:26:51.620 keeping quiet about her support for President Trump out of fear, out of fear of alienating fans

00:26:56.460 and the industry machine. But it was when Anna Paulina Luna stepped in and offered her help to

00:27:02.960 ensure her family's safety that Nicki Minaj finally said, and these are her words, by the

00:27:07.000 way, from the piece, that she had never seen anyone in politics treat her that way. And that

00:27:11.860 made her want to say, I don't care to keep this a secret anymore. And boom, she was done hiding.

00:27:18.140 Nicki Minaj came out of the closet, the very red Republican closet. She was talking about how she

00:27:24.840 became disillusioned with Democrat politics, actually during the Obama era, which is interesting 0.99

00:27:30.620 because we've been led to believe that black people, they must support Obama. Why? Because 0.99

00:27:36.360 he's also black. Actually, Joe Biden himself said, if you don't vote for me, then you ain't black. 0.97

00:27:41.860 But in this interview, she actually criticized Obama and actually his closeness with Jay-Z and claims that many rappers secretly dislike Jay-Z and that the relationship that he had with Obama, people weren't overly keen on, but people were afraid to say so publicly, which there's a lot of lore behind Jay-Z and Beyonce.

00:28:03.180 I think that's an episode for a different time. Nikki, she describes herself as a catalyst who

00:28:11.240 would hopefully be able to encourage more celebrities to openly support President Trump,

00:28:15.500 or at this point, just again, to even have common sense. There's a Charlie Kirk tweet for everything.

00:28:23.660 He rushed to her defense. I mentioned how she was critical of some of the COVID vaccines.

00:28:28.620 In particular, she was talking about how the COVID vaccines were causing testicular swelling.

00:28:34.740 I don't want to know how she came to that conclusion.

00:28:37.500 Anyways, that, of course, resulted in immense backlash.

00:28:41.060 But Charlie Kirk tweeted, he said this, he said, Democrats treatment of Nicki Minaj should 0.91

00:28:45.040 be all the proof you need that they don't care about black people, especially those 0.85

00:28:48.520 they can't control. 0.99

00:28:49.640 They just use them every four years for their votes.

00:28:51.840 But people are waking up. 0.99

00:28:53.860 And it's so true.

00:28:54.920 So, you know, one of my favorite photos that has surfaced from President Trump's time in the Oval Office, especially during the second administration, is the photo of him and Nicki Minaj holding hands.

00:29:07.400 I think it was when the Trump accounts were being announced earlier this year.

00:29:12.340 You have it's such a visual of unity to me.

00:29:15.280 You have President Trump and his like wrinkled orange hands holding Nicki Minaj's hand.

00:29:21.500 And she has like these long, like fiercely long fingernails and darker skin.

00:29:27.260 And they're holding hands.

00:29:28.360 It's such a visual of unity and the umbrella that President Trump has created to support

00:29:34.600 and help advance his America First agenda.

00:29:38.000 And no, Nicki Minaj has not been canceled. 0.80

00:29:41.740 So what's different about her?

00:29:43.680 Why hasn't she? 0.77

00:29:44.680 Again, you would think, I mean, she alluded to the fact that she thought this would be the end of her career. And again, I'm not here to say that she hasn't suffered in some way or that she hasn't experienced maybe some missed opportunities because I'm sure that she has, but she's still climbing. She's climbing in the charts. She's still wildly successful. She's incredibly wealthy. She has her loyal barb army. She's still culturally relevant. She's still effective. Why is that?

00:30:12.420 It doesn't make sense, right? If we're supposed to believe everything about cancel culture that

00:30:18.380 we've been led to believe, I know I'm right about this because again, I have been the recipient of

00:30:24.380 perceived cancel culture. They cannot cancel you if you do not let them. And Nicki Minaj is not

00:30:31.800 letting them cancel her. She just keeps showing up. She keeps it 100% real. She's authentic.

00:30:37.720 she prioritizes her family's safety over industry approval as made very clear by the swatting

00:30:44.520 incidents she refuses to endlessly apologize or grovel or bend the knee and by the way the 0.98

00:30:52.500 same people who are screaming at her for her politics are the hypocrites who don't actually 0.98

00:30:58.240 care about the harm right the swatting the death threats the real danger to her kid they only care 0.99

00:31:05.260 when it fits their narrative. They will try to cancel a mom who's protecting her child,

00:31:10.400 but ignore actual threats if it's inconvenient to them. That is not principle. They act like

00:31:17.840 they're very principled and virtuous. It's not. That's not what that is. It's a power grab,

00:31:22.120 or I should really say an attempted power grab because it's not working anymore. 1.00

00:31:26.520 She is still standing because she has built an empire on being unfiltered and real and raw and 0.89

00:31:33.640 entirely true to herself. And she has a loyal fan base. She has, again, cultural relevance.

00:31:39.120 She has zero fear. Maybe that's not true. Actually, I don't think that's true. I do believe

00:31:44.180 she has fear. I'm sure there are things that she is scared of, but she has the courage to do the

00:31:50.020 right thing in the face of fear. Now, compare that to the people who do get canceled or who are

00:31:57.080 exiled from public life. Those people oftentimes, especially in talking about people with influence,

00:32:03.640 I'm not here to talk about someone who, because it has happened since 2020, especially during that time frame where people lost their jobs.

00:32:11.600 I'm not talking about your everyday American right now.

00:32:14.000 I am talking about those with influence or a platform or status.

00:32:18.220 The people who get canceled, those are the people who depend on corporate or institutional approval.

00:32:26.080 Maybe they don't have that strong of an independent base.

00:32:29.320 Maybe they're easily replaceable.

00:32:31.380 Think of the people, right?

00:32:32.520 There's 100 people I could think of. Matt Lauer, gone. Blake Lively, in her recent struggles.

00:32:39.300 Chris Harrison, I actually really, really like him from The Bachelor. He basically apologized

00:32:43.360 his way out of a job after defending a contestant's past. Look at other people who haven't

00:32:48.940 been canceled. People like J.K. Rowling. I think she is a fantastic, a prime example of this.

00:32:55.520 She takes every single hit, and guess what? She takes it on the chin, and she just keeps on 0.99

00:33:00.560 thriving and growing because of her platform and because of her principles. Because believe it or

00:33:06.160 not, she actually has the normal, common sense, universal stance on some of these cultural issues

00:33:12.740 that has resulted in the backlash, Oregon, the online response that she's received, such as the

00:33:19.680 gender ideology movement. She has the right stance on that. One more clip I want to play

00:33:25.100 of gina carano from disney who was effectively canceled during peak cancel time again right

00:33:32.180 around that 2020 era she was in fast and furious 6 she was in deadpool extraction i think eventually

00:33:38.440 she was in the mandalorian but in 2020 it was the vaccine talk actually there was a lot that

00:33:44.580 she was speaking up on uh again scary time to do it talking about covid restrictions and mask and

00:33:51.000 election fraud claims after 2020 and pronouns and the trans issue. But the final controversy,

00:33:57.760 really the straw that broke the camel's back, was when she reposted content comparing

00:34:02.120 the treatment of modern American conservatives to Jews in Nazi Germany. This resulted in her

00:34:09.880 talent agency dropping her. She was no longer working with Disney. Shocker, right? She was

00:34:15.300 effectively canceled but was she really though let's watch this clip of her from this past week

00:34:21.720 yeah i i took heat for standing up for freedom of speech in this country um i don't apologize

00:34:31.700 one bit for anything that i said i was let's go i was spot on i look back and i have so much

00:34:38.680 confidence in myself because everything that i said came true everything that i said happened

00:34:43.440 I guess I forgot to mention that she's also an MMA fighter. That's actually what led her to becoming a Hollywood action actress. That, to me, what you saw on that stage at that presser, that doesn't look like a woman who has been canceled. 0.79

00:34:59.900 Uh, that looks like a woman who has conviction, uh, a woman who looks liberated, quite frankly, 0.91

00:35:06.360 who appears to feel very free, um, in her delivery, even her body language.

00:35:12.320 She doubled down on standing for free speech, even after her battle with Disney.

00:35:17.240 Yes, she paid a pretty hefty price for speaking out, but it appears, well, she says that she

00:35:23.700 would do it over and over and over again.

00:35:26.580 That is what it looks like to not be canceled.

00:35:31.520 I want to hear from you guys.

00:35:33.480 Do you think cancel culture actually works?

00:35:35.800 Who do you think does it better, the left or the right?

00:35:38.600 Maybe some of you have your own experience with cancel culture.

00:35:42.720 Do you guys feel like it's selective self-enforcement,

00:35:47.520 dressed up as like justice or virtue?

00:35:50.240 I want to hear from you guys in the comments.

00:35:51.880 Thanks for listening to today's episode of The Riley Gain Show.

00:35:56.740 Thank you guys for watching the Riley Gaines show.

00:35:58.660 You can subscribe right here.

00:36:00.500 We have new episodes every single Tuesday and Friday at 10 a.m.

00:36:03.780 Eastern time, and we are covering everything from pop culture to politics,

00:36:07.500 to deep dives, to motherhood, sports, all of that and more.

00:36:10.580 We want to hear from you, though.

00:36:11.740 What is it that you want to hear?

00:36:12.760 Comment down below.

00:36:13.520 We can't wait to see you next time.

00:36:26.060 I've coached the game.

00:36:27.160 I've played the game.

00:36:28.240 So when I break it down on Don't At Me, you're getting more than opinions.

00:36:31.900 You're getting experience. 1.00

00:36:33.800 We've put really dumb, racist people on the air. 1.00

00:36:37.280 That's the ESPN model right now. 1.00

00:36:39.200 This show is about winning, accountability, and truth.

00:36:41.980 Not the usual nonsensical soft takes.

00:36:44.940 If you want real analysis from someone who's been there, join me.

00:36:48.040 Search Don't At Me on Spotify or Apple Podcasts.

00:36:51.260 Subscribe right now.

00:36:52.200 It's free.

00:36:52.680 It's portable.

00:36:53.240 And most importantly, it's as real as it gets.

Gaines for Girls with Riley Gaines - May 19, 2026

Nicki Minaj, James Charles and the New Rules of Cancel Culture ｜ The Riley Gaines Show

Episode Stats

Summary

Transcript