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Cardi B is not backing down. The Grammy-winning rapper, who has been vocal in her criticism of Donald Trump, found herself in a public back-and-forth with the US Department of Homeland Security after comments she made about the controversial Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency during a recent stop on her Little Miss Drama Tour in Palm Desert, California, on Wednesday.

Mid-performance, Cardi addressed the crowd with a warning that quickly went viral. “B***h, if ICE comes in here, we gon’ jump they a***s,” she said in a clip circulating online. “I’ve got some bear mace in the back! They ain’t taking my fans, b***h,” People reported.

The remark prompted a pointed response from the Department of Homeland Security’s official X account, which quoted a TMZ article about the moment and wrote, “As long as she doesn’t drug and rob our agents, we’ll consider that an improvement over her past behaviour,” referencing Cardi’s past admission that she had drugged and robbed men while working as an exotic dancer.

Cardi has addressed that chapter of her life before. In 2019, she acknowledged that “whether or not they were poor choices at the time, I did what I had to do to survive” and maintained, “I never claimed to be perfect or come from a perfect world”. She has also contextualised those admissions within hip-hop’s confessional tradition, saying, “I’m a part of a hip-hop culture where you can talk about where you come from, talk about the wrong things you had to do to get where you are,” while making it clear she does not glorify that period of her life.

She added that she is ashamed of it and has “never glorified the things I brought up in that live [video], I never even put those things in my music because I’m not proud of it and feel a responsibility not to glorify it”.

But this time, Cardi’s response was swift — and redirected the spotlight.

“If we talking about drugs let’s talk about Epstein and friends drugging underage girls to rape them. Why y’all don’t wanna talk about the Epstein files?” she wrote, invoking the ongoing scrutiny surrounding convicted sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein.

In recent weeks, the US Department of Justice has released millions of additional documents tied to Epstein’s case, reigniting public interest in the network of powerful figures previously associated with him. The disclosures have once again pulled celebrities, politicians and business leaders into uncomfortable headlines as past ties are reexamined. Former president Donald Trump’s name appears at least 5,300 times in the documents, according to The New York Times, though he has denied any wrongdoing and has not been charged in connection to the case, according to Variety.

The ripple effects have also reached the entertainment industry. Wasserman Group founder Casey Wasserman has faced mounting criticism over historic links to Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein’s longtime associate who is currently serving a 20-year prison sentence for sex trafficking. Several artists, including Chappell Roan and Orville Peck, have reportedly severed ties with the agency and called for leadership changes.