This week, President Donald Trump has shown yet again that he will work to protect Christians not only in the United States but around the globe. On Friday, he designated Nigeria as a Country of Particular Concern (CPC) over the long-ignored slaughter of Christians taking place there. On Saturday, he announced on social media that he is willing to both cut off aid to Nigeria and possibly even use military force to help protect beleaguered believers in that country.
Christians in Nigeria have been suffering increasing levels of persecution at the hands of their Islamist countrymen over the last two decades. A 2023 report by Intersociety found that more than 50,000 Christians have been murdered since 2009—and the persecution has only escalated since then.
Despite that reality, in 2023, the Biden administration removed the Country of Particular Concern (CPC) status that had been attached to Nigeria by the Trump administration in 2020. The 1998 International Religious Freedom Act (IRFA) requires the president to give CPC status to countries in which “particularly severe violations of religious freedom” are either allowed or perpetrated by a government.
Many political figures in the U.S., including Senators Ted Cruz, Josh Hawley, and Pete Ricketts, urged the Trump administration to reattach the designation in September. On October 15, an ecumenical coalition of Christian leaders and activists sent Trump a letter urging him to do more than simply put Nigeria on the Special Watch List since this designation does not trigger mandatory sanctions.
The letter noted that the number of Christians killed since 2009 is now over 52,000, with more than 20,000 churches destroyed and 100 pastors abducted. It also noted that the terror, conducted by Islamic groups, affects Muslims themselves.
Trump announced he would again designate Nigeria as a CPC on October 31, saying that “Christianity is facing an existential threat” and asking Representatives Riley Moore (R-WV) and Tom Cole (R-OK), who is chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, “to immediately look into this matter and report back to me.”
The Nigerian government refuted the accusations that an anti-Christian terror campaign is being waged in their country. Nigerian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Kimiebi Ebienfa said the Trump announcement did “not reflect the situation on the ground” since, despite religious differences, Nigerians “have long lived, worked, and worshipped together peacefully.”
Nigerian Senator Shehu Sani added that “the designation of Nigeria is founded on outright falsehoods and wholesale misinformation. Terrorists and bandits in Nigeria kill and kidnap their victims irrespective of their religious beliefs.” While it may be true that not all terrorism is religiously motivated, that doesn’t mean that most of the persecution isn’t directed at Christians over their faith.
Many others who recognize this reality greeted Trump’s designation joyfully, including the bipartisan U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) and the international religious liberty organization Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF).
Perhaps most surprising is that rap star Nicki Minaj also celebrated the decision, writing on social media that the President’s announcement elicited in her “a deep sense of gratitude.” She added: “Numerous countries all around the world are being affected by this horror [and] it’s dangerous to pretend we don’t notice. Thank you to the president [and] his team for taking this seriously. God bless every persecuted Christian. Let’s remember to lift them up in prayer.”
On Saturday, November 1, Trump went further, threatening the Nigerian government with both sanctions and possible military action if the nation does not stop the slaughter of innocent Christians:
“If the Nigerian Government continues to allow the killing of Christians, the U.S.A. will immediately stop all aid and assistance to Nigeria, and may very well go into that now disgraced country, ‘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. If we attack, it will be fast, vicious, and sweet, just like the terrorist thugs attack our CHERISHED Christians! WARNING: THE NIGERIAN GOVERNMENT BETTER MOVE FAST!”
This willingness to act and act quickly is a solid move for Trump, who is popular with many Nigerian Christians already. Will he really send in troops? It’s a good bet that, while the President is ready to do so, he really doesn’t want to. Trump proved during his first term that he is only willing to use deadly force as a last resort – and only in a way that endangers as few American lives as possible.
What Trump does want to do is change Nigeria, the most populous country in Africa, for the better. Given his prioritizing of this issue within the first year of his second term, there’s a good chance that he will succeed.
As Sean Nelson of ADF commented on X, while Trump did designate Nigeria a CPC in his first term, it was not until 2020, making it easy for the Biden team to downplay the status and eventually remove it.
“This one’s happening at the beginning of Trump’s term. Nearly 4 years to turn this around,” Nelson wrote. He added that if we’ve learned anything about President Trump in his second term, “it’s that in foreign policy, when he acts, he means it. So, I think there’s a real shot of success here. We can change the course of the persecution of Christians. In Nigeria and elsewhere. We really have a chance.”
David P. Deavel teaches at the University of St. Thomas in Houston. A past Lincoln Fellow at the Claremont Institute, he is a Senior Contributor at The Imaginative Conservative. Follow him on X (Twitter) @davidpdeavel.
Can’t we finish off Venezuela before we go into Nigeria?
What happened to America First? This is a hard slap in the face to everyone who voted for Trump.
Nigeria doesn’t need American taxpayers money or military resources. Let Nigeria solve its own problems without any sort of US intervention.
I am so grateful to President Trump and to the men who alerted him of this horror… many have been praying for justice and protection for years!
The Nigerian government has ignored the cry of its own Christian citizens for decades. There are millions of refugees living in abject poverty due to these Muslim marauders! These Christians cried for protection but the government ignored them, and the perpetrators are not held accountable. It is a tragedy.
Thankfully the cry has been heard from a distant country, and justice is coming.
President Trump doesn’t want war, but he knows more people must start openly criticizing and even fighting against the barbaric blood-thirsty Muslims who are killing innocent Christians by the tens of thousands. President Trump is America first, but he also knows when it’s feasible to help mankind defend itself from violent evil.
Please, DJT. Let’s not pi$$ off every country in the world, all at once. I am on your side here, but DAMN.
Thank you President Trump and Thank You God. Politics aside, why would Joe Biden remove Nigeria from this list? Unless it was nothing more than to undo whatever President Trump had done? Innocent people are not just being murdered, they are being tortured and beheaded, why would we not protect them? Joe Biden (supposedly) is/was Catholic, although the Church refuses him Holy Communion as of 2022. As a fellow Christian, how could he even consider not protecting Christians being murdered? Once again, we see the difference between people in a position of power, and how they use that power, one for good, and one for selfish, bad reasons. God bless President Trump and God bless our Nigerian brethren.
All those in favor of sending their grandchildren to die in Venezuela or Nigeria, raise your hands.
President Trump is the best President we have had he loves this country, he believes in god and doing what is best for all Christians!!! He needs to put an end to evil and Socialism and the Democratic Party!!!
About time. The Islamic Terrorist have been burning churches, murdering Christians by the 1000s and the government is not stopping them. Biden kept silent on it. So many children, men and women are killed they have to bury them in mass graves
Having a 6 year relationship with a young Christian man from Nigeria, I am so happy to hear that President Trump is doing something about the slaughter of innocent men and women in that country. My friend has had to hide out in the bush for days on end because his village was under attack. Thank you President Trump!
Just don’t open our borders to them.
I totally agree with President Trump.
I am glad to read that President Trump is again putting the “Country of Particular Concern” (CPC) tag on Nigeria. The senseless killing of Christians in that country has been going on far too long. I am not too sure about wanting to put “boots on the ground” there though. Biden for being called a good man (I didn’t want to say a good Christian) certainly has messed up the whole world while in office. One must/can assume that since Biden essentially had most of the same people from his and Obama’s original administration in his administration, they were not looking out for either the United States or the rest of the world.
Sending out warning to Nigeria on Truth Social does not seem like a great way to interact with other countries, I think this should be official notice from White House. And Trump stated …WILL COME IN WITH GUNS ABLAZIN…….. The Nobel Peace prize is probably not in the picture for Trump/
christian in other African countries are also being persecuted.
Yep, Trump is there simply to protect the Christians because causing harm to others based on their religious beliefs is horrid…..but then why spend tens of billions providing arms and intel to the Israelis for their ongoing effort at killing their Islamic neighbors of whose land was stolen and gifted to them?
SOME folks might suspect that Nigeria is getting so much attention more for the oil under their feet than any disturbance of Christians. After all a man who refuses to release evidence damning Epstein AND his associates could hardly have much real interest in whether Christians live or die.
Mostly though, I’m just waiting to see how Trump is going to spin the story should evidence come out that the Israeli Mossad along with our own CIA killed Charlie Kirk.
That will be one fun day
This is another reason we can’t allow people who do not accept that religious freedom is part of our American culture into the U.S. It’s as simple as that.
Trump has done an extremely poor job of protecting the Christians in Gaza. On the contrary, he collaborates with those who are trying to exterminate them.
Should this be an United Nations issue?
The so-called Reverends, Jessie Jackson and Al Sharpton, are conspicuous by their absence after all they claim to be ministers of the Bible.
New York City placed a ranting communist Moslem as Mayor who will do what?
I guess we’ll never learn. Most of the world’s population do not agree with the United States way of life. Most are not Christian God fearing countries. And our good intentions are only temporary. We go in, we conquer and we stay and stay and stay. It’s a lose/lose situation. We can’t fix the world – and we need to stop trying.
Somalia: lol this will be short
The stand against persecution must happen to send a message to those trying to take over the US as well. This will not be tolerated under this president and the churches need to get some back bone and start to move towards the same stand as our founding fathers against such things.
Thank you President Trump.Finally a president thea cares about people, here and around the world.
On CBN they showed a map of Nigeria and it appears the northern half is predominantly Muslim while the south is predominantly Christian. The problem is that radical Muslims want EVERYTHING! They are not content to stay in their areas. The same deal is working out in NYC where the Muslim extremist communist is running ahead. If he wins, he’ll load up the bureaucracy with more extremists!
Nigerian leaders talk just like the dem governors in Illinois, Oregon, Washington and CA. Nothing to see here no lawlessness, no killings. Just Antifa protesting. Not organized, go home ICE. Nigeria has been instructed well. If president Trump doesn’t do something no other leader in the free will do anything. They are all okay with the Christian Genocide. Nigeria is a test country. Biden gave up Afghanistan to Islam. Christians there have been eliminated. It’s the globalization of the Islamic world where whites and Christian’s do not fit in. He did the same with Nigeria. Most populated country with lots of Christians. Don’t be fooled by these democrats they have a plan. Catholics are persecuted over here by the FBI on orders of Obama 3.0. They killed Charlie Kirk because of his beliefs. He empowered the people to think. And the globalists can’t have thinking people. They need sheep that mindlessly will obey and repeat what their leaders say. I heard one New Yorker say I am voting for Mamdani he is promising a Lamborghini for everyone. Can you believe the naivety of this person. But that is the left party in America. Power and destruction.
Christians worldwide have been facing persecution and death for decades, especially in the African nations whose political lives are in turmoil and burdened with chaos, not to mention the rise of Islamic hatred towards any and all other religious groups. This is not news…..it’s just the ongoing tragedy of the supposed Christian nations playing politics.
If America were to be persistent and pro-active for Christians and Christianity, much of this kind of mayhem would be far more diminished. We, as a nation have been slow and ineffective overall in the defense of religion, in particular the Christian faith. There are knows groups who target Christians, and when it is expedient politically, we respond, but that’s about it. Our general claim to be a nation of faith falls short when we turn a deaf ear to cries for help and look the other way. Just my take. You may have another.
Trump is determined to start another war. He can’t stand not using the military as the world’s police, something he criticized the demonrats for doing. I’m sick of his power grabs and his attention to every country but the USA. Seniors are here suffering and Christians have faced discrimination here, and others are in need of food but his attention is on foreign countries, not his own.
Warn all travelers, when coming into Alachua, county, beware, the whole county is nothing but a SPEED TRAP, I believe in obeying the Law, but the fines are atrocious and I believe dishonest, just taking advantage of people. Then when you get a tickett the dishonest Insurance co. steps in for their fair share of the trough slop. I don’t know about other counties, but, ALACHUA COUNTY is full of liberal’s and SOCIALIST’S. So all that read this, you have been WARNED.
Time to send in The Expendables for specific target hits or Tears of the Sun SEAL team movie