Nicki Minaj Calls Don Lemon Homophobic Slur Again on Podcast

Nicki Minaj isn't backing down after controversially calling Don Lemon a homophobic slur ... she's doubling down on that remark in a new podcast promo that dropped amid his arrest.

Days before Don's Thursday night arrest, the rapper sat down for an interview on "The Katie Miller Podcast" ... and she was asked to respond to him calling her "racist, unhinged, homophobic and our of [her] depth" -- all comments he made on "TMZ Live."

Minaj replied simply, "C***sucker, stop" ... prompting laughs from Miller before the clip ends.

Of course, the tension between Nicki and Don dates back to earlier this month when Don live-streamed a news report from Cities Church in St Paul, MN, where -- during a service -- demonstrators interrupted to protest Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

The church pastor, reportedly a Minneapolis ICE official, wasn't present when the protest broke out at the church ... but in her outrage over the protest, Nicki posted ... "DON 'C**K SUCKIN' LEMON IS DISGUSTING."

The timing of Miller's post is especially interesting ... because it comes on the same morning that news of Don Lemon's arrest broke. The New York Times reports Lemon has been arrested for impeding people's right to worship while working as a journalist at the protest. He was in L.A., covering events leading up to the Grammys.

BTW, Miller is pretty plugged in with the Trump administration -- she's a former advisor to Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency and the wife of Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller.

U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi released a statement about the arrest, which reads ... "At my direction, early this morning federal agents arrested Don Lemon, Trahern Jeen Crews, Georgia Fort, and Jamael Lydell Lundy, in connection with the coordinated attack on Cities Church in St. Paul, Minnesota."