President Donald Trump on Saturday threatened U.S. military intervention in Nigeria and the withholding of all foreign aid if its government continues “to allow the killing of Christians.”
Trump said in a post to social media that if Nigeria does not halt the persecution of Christians he may send U.S. troops “guns-a-blazing” to “completely wipe out the Islamic Terrorists who are committing these horrible atrocities.”
“I am hereby instructing our Department of War to prepare for possible action,” he wrote. “If we attack, it will be fast, vicious, and sweet, just like the terrorist thugs attack our CHERISHED Christians!”
On Friday, Trump threatened possible sanctions against the West African nation, declaring it a “country of particular concern” in terms of religious freedom — a classification Nigeria’s president pushed back on.
Nigeria’s population of 220 million, the largest in Africa, is largely split between Christians and Muslims, with insurgent groups like Boko Haram declaring ideological aims to impose a version of Islamic rule, which has often led to the persecution of both Christians and Muslims living in the nation.
In response to the president’s claims Friday, Nigeria’s president, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, pushed back on social media, arguing that to characterize his country as religiously intolerant “does not reflect our national reality.” Religious freedom has “been a core tenet of our collective identity and shall always remain so,” he added.
Trump’s threats on Truth Social come after Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) shined a spotlight on the issue earlier this month, accusing Nigeria of enabling a “massacre” on Christians and citing a rising number of attacks against the religious group.
The bipartisan United States Commission on International Religious Freedom has also urged that the U.S. government designate Nigeria a country of particular concern in its 2025 annual report, highlighting religious persecution of both Christians and Muslims.
The Texas senator introduced legislation to sanction Nigerian officials who are “ignoring and even facilitating the mass murder of Christians by Islamist jihadists.”
Trump said in his Friday post declaring the designation for Nigeria that he is directing Reps. Riley Moore (R-W.Va.) and Tom Cole (R-Okla.) to “immediately look into this matter.”
