Brittany Luce

Nicki Minaj now refers to herself as President Trump's number one fan.

And she's the latest in a line of rappers who have moved from being Trump-critical to openly admiring the president and his policies.

And if we turn to the matter of arrests and fatal confrontations involving the Department of Homeland Security, let me throw some numbers at you.

According to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, as of August 2025, about 23% of the overall DHS workforce identifies as Hispanic or Latino.

For Customs and Border Patrol, that number jumps to 50%.

This may not capture the large influx of new agents that have joined the Immigration and Customs Enforcement as of recent, but these are the numbers as of last August.

It feels like we're in a moment where people of various racial backgrounds are on the front lines of our current culture wars and not fighting for the side you might assume.

Now, I'm obviously not talking about the majority of any one group of people, but these examples are making culturally impactful moments that have me scratching my head and wondering, how the hell did we get here?

To think this through, I'm here with Axios' senior race and justice reporter, Russell Contreras.

Russell, welcome back to It's Been a Minute.

It's good to be with you.

It's been a minute, definitely.

Hello, hello.

I'm Brittany Luce, and you're listening to It's Been a Minute from NPR, a show about what's going on in culture and why it doesn't happen by accident.

It's been a minute.

There's something that feels very unique to me about this moment as far as like this multicultural far right that we're seeing kind of fomenting.

Like I said, not the majority of people of color, but...

There are some very prominent, loud voices that are creating these really culturally impactful moments.

What is unique about why this is all coalescing right now in this really big, obvious way?

Well, it also sounds like you don't need credentials either.