Writer-director Don Mancini, whose credits include the “Child’s Play” franchise, is calling out Nicki Minaj for attempting to rebrand his best-known creation as a MAGA Republican during the midterm elections.
On Tuesday, Minaj shared an AI-generated illustration of Chucky, the serial killer-possessed doll from the “Child’s Play” films, on X that showed the horror icon suited up and wearing a button that read: “Vote Red.”
“HAPPY ELECTION DAY!!!” wrote the rapper, who has spent much of the past year aligning herself with President Donald Trump and his MAGA agenda.
By Tuesday evening, Minaj’s post had drawn a fiery reply from Mancini.
“IMPOSTER,” he wrote on X. “CHUCKY IS PART OF THE BLUE WAVE THAT WILL WASH AWAY ALL THE CORRUPTION.”
In a subsequent X post, he shared an image of a Chucky doll wearing an “I Voted” sticker, writing: “Chucky has a trans kid. Chucky protects the dolls. Chucky is anti-ICE. Chucky says ‘A BLUE WAVE is coming, as BLUE as my fuckin’ eyes!’”
And about an hour after that, Mancini seemingly reacted to the election results with another photo of Chucky ― this time with blue hair ― and a follow-up message for Minaj.
“Too bad, Nicki! No AI, by the way!” he quipped.
Minaj has previously referenced “Child’s Play” on her social media platforms.
Earlier this year, she used a photo of Chucky while reacting to journalist Don Lemon’s January arrest on federal civil rights charges related to his coverage of a protest at a Minnesota church where an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) official was a pastor.
“HOW DARE YOU? I WANT THAT THUG IN JAIL!!!!!” she wrote, after describing Lemon with a homophobic slur. “HE WOULD NEVER DO THAT TO ANY OTHER RELIGION. LOCK HIM UP!!!!!”
Mancini, who is gay, has said he took inspiration from his own childhood, as well as the consumerism of the 1980s, while writing the original “Child’s Play,” released in 1988.
Rapper Nicki Minaj has spent most of 2026 aligning herself with President Donald Trump and his MAGA agenda.
Win McNamee via Getty Images
The franchise has since expanded to include seven big-screen sequels. A television series, simply titled “Chucky,” aired from 2021 to 2024 on Syfy and USA.
As Mancini pointed out on X, Chucky was revealed to have a genderfluid child in the 2004 film “Seed of Chucky.” The character was expanded for the TV series, where they were portrayed in human form by actor Lachlan Watson.
“There’s also a real connection between the horror genre and outsiders,” Mancini told Them in 2022, while discussing his efforts to incorporate more LGBTQ+ themes into his franchise. “I think a lot of fans and practitioners are attracted to horror because it’s traditionally been a haven for people on the fringe or who’ve been made to feel on the fringe.”