Nicki Minaj claimed on Twitter that she was invited to the White House to discuss her viral stance on the COVID vaccine, but a government official says otherwise.
"The White House has invited me & I think it's a step in the right direction. Yes, I'm going. I'll be dressed in all pink like Legally Blonde so they know I mean business," she tweeted on Sept. 15. "I'll ask questions on behalf of the ppl who have been made fun of for simply being human."
Nicki Minaj caused quite a stir this week over her position on the COVID-19 vaccine, and it had to do with, among other things, her cousin's friend's testicles and a canceled wedding.
"My cousin in Trinidad won't get the vaccine cuz his friend got it & became impotent," she wrote. "His testicles became swollen. His friend was weeks away from getting married, now the girl called off the wedding. So just pray on it & make sure you're comfortable with ur decision, not bullied."
The claim got so much attention that health officials in the United States and Trinidad had to publicly debunk it, as both indicated impotence is not a side effect.
After Nicki's White House claims, an official told Fox News that a visit to 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. wasn't actually offered, but rather a phone call with a doctor was. Nicki, however, insisted that she got a White House invitation.
"Do y'all think that I would go on the Internet and lie about being invited to the … White House?" she said in a lengthy Instagram Live session.
Despite her tweet saying she was going, the rapper implied in her video that she likely wouldn't go to D.C. because she didn't want to travel, but she reiterated that a phone call took place regarding an invite.
"I said, 'Well, I would rather not have to travel, can we do something like a [Instagram] Live' and they said that they're open to me choosing a platform to do a Live but they never have taken that off the table for me to come to the White House," she maintained.
Nicki's stance, particularly the one regarding her cousin's friend's testicles, was the subject of much online ridicule, and late night hosts also couldn't help but comment on it.
The "Starships" singer later said she was in "Twitter jail" over her stance.
"I'm in Twitter jail y'all," she said on Instagram. "They didn't like what I was saying over there on that block…"
She later added: "Look at what they just did. I will never use Twitter again. First of all, I didn't give any facts about any vaccine… I didn't give any facts about anything."
A Twitter rep told BuzzFeed that the social media company "did not take any enforcement action in the account."