“By the way, I looked at one hell of a beautiful ass before,” President Donald Trump said as his supporters watched with anticipation. Then he pointed and declared, “Nicki Minaj!”
Cheers from the MAGA faithful erupted. “That’s hard to miss!” Trump continued.
He told Minaj, “Stand up Nicki! That’s hard to miss!” Then the party of “family values” stared at her butt and applauded as Trump looked down at her, smiled and pumped his fist.
After Minaj sat back down, Trump told the story of meeting Ohio Sen. Jon Husted, a former college football player for the Dayton Flyers. “I’m examining his body. And I said, ‘His ass was like a big piece of muscle,” Trump recalled. He went on to describe the size of Husted’s neck, feet and hands with fingers like sausages.
Sen. Jon Husted, R-Ohio, fist bumps a police officer as Vivek Ramaswamy, Republican candidate for governor, looks on, during an Ohio Republican Bus Tour stop at the Circleville Pumpkin Show in Circleville, Ohio, on Friday, October 23, 2026. (Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call via AP Images)
Then Trump used it all to attack the media, saying, “When I said I looked at his ass, the press went crazy the next day. They said, ‘What’s with Trump? All he wants to do is talk about a man’s ass. … They didn’t explain the whole football deal!”
But the greater context here isn’t a conversation about football. It’s about how Trump apparently likes to incorporate sex jokes as part of his campaign strategy. Last week in North Carolina, Trump said of Husted: “I’m studying his body. I’ve never studied the body of a man before. … But I looked at his ass. And then I looked at his legs. And I said, ‘His ass, it’s like a pile of muscle.”
He did something similar in the lead up to the 2024 election when he talked about pro golfer Arnold Palmer’s penis size and said, “When he took showers with the other pros, they came out of there. They said, ‘Oh my god. That’s unbelievable.’”
“Trump began his political career by comparing his own penis size to Marco Rubio’s.”
In fact, Trump began his political career by comparing his own penis size to Marco Rubio’s at a Republican primary debate in March 2016. “Look at those hands,” Trump said. “Are they small hands? And he referred to my hands — if they’re small, something else must be small.” Then he assured Republican voters about his own penis size, “I guarantee you there’s no problem.”
Regarding this latest example, Minaj hasn’t stated explicitly how she felt about the public spectacle. With Trump standing behind her with a big grin on his face, Minaj told the crowd she supports Trump and always will, even if he illegally runs for a third term.
But whether Minaj was OK with it or not is irrelevant. She’s free to market herself however she wants to in her music videos or on her platforms. But this wasn’t a music video or a club where Minaj and the audience presumably have consented to an experience together celebrating sexuality.
This was a public event where families with young children frequently attend. And remember, Republicans are the ones who brand themselves as being safe for the whole family while claiming the Democrats are the ones who talk inappropriately about sex in front of kids.
So given how the GOP is supposedly the Christian party of a Christian nation, how should we process so many Christians continuing to laugh and clap along with Trump’s public sexual commentary every election season?
Fox News host Jesse Watters loves to share sex jokes and talk about women’s bodies in public as well. Therefore, it’s no surprise he came to Trump’s defense on one of white evangelicals’ favorite shows, The Five. Watters suggested, “When he says that about Nicki’s butt, people — they call them low propensity voters — that punctures their bubble.” In other words, it’s a brilliant campaign strategy to get out the vote.
Multiple White House officials, including Communications Director Steven Cheung and Trump adviser Alex Bruesewitz suggested offering Minaj the new White House press secretary position.
And it’s not just the politicians or pundits on the right coming to Trump’s defense. Commentators across social media, who we’ve been told by the likes of former Christianity Today deputy editor Bonnie Kristian are essentially off limits for criticism, have joined in as well. In typical evangelical fashion, one commentator said: “He is a human with a very sinful past. Aren’t we all? Don’t we all struggle with our sin nature, and doesn’t it win more often than we like? … Instead of tut-tutting and condemning him, can we pray?”
“That’s not called struggling with your sin nature. That’s called sexual harassment.”
No. We don’t all make comments from a stage about women’s bodies, tell them to stand so everyone can stare at their butts, and then get cheered. That’s not called struggling with your sin nature. That’s called sexual harassment.
This isn’t something Trump is struggling with. It’s a pattern of speech for him. And it’s not something simply from his past. He does it all the time.
So calling it out isn’t “tut-tutting.” It’s called being a decent human.
The real question isn’t if this will finally be the thing that causes white evangelicals to stop supporting him. They don’t care.
If they didn’t stop voting for him after he bragged about grabbing women by the genitals or about walking into changing rooms while underage girls were undressed, why would they care when he tells a woman to stand so everyone can stare at her?
These are the same people who are being shepherded by Christian nationalist pastors like Josh Howerton, who tells women they need to “stand where he tells you to stand, wear what he tells you to wear, and do what he tells you to do” on “his wedding night.”
The reality is that white evangelicals aren’t holding Donald Trump back from talking like this. They’re enabling him.
“I have the all time in history Christian vote. I have the evangelical vote, the Christian vote. I know more than anybody,” Trump declared earlier this month. “A certain pastor from a place in Dallas, Texas … said, ‘… he’s the greatest leader and he’s gonna lead us to a period of time in Christianity that nobody else can do.'”
Trump knows he’s not going to lose the evangelical vote no matter what he says. He bragged about it earlier this month, “I could say the stupidest things and you’d clap.”
And sure enough, they did.
Rick Pidcock
Rick Pidcock is a 2004 graduate of Bob Jones University, with a bachelor of arts degree in Bible. He’s a freelance writer based in South Carolina and a former Clemons Fellow with BNG. He completed a master of arts degree in worship from Northern Seminary. He is a stay-at-home father of five children and is the author of a forthcoming book, Weapons of Worship: How the Songs of Evangelicalism Form the Soundtrack of Extremism. Follow his blog at www.rickpidcock.com.