How Trump Took Up the ‘Christian Genocide’ Cause in NigeriaTop advisers from the Trump Administration sat at the head of a giant wooden table in an office near the White House in late October listening as religious activists described attacks on Christian churches and pastors in Nigeria. The activists wanted President Trump to do something about it.
Three days later, the president threatened to enter Nigeria “guns-a-blazing” to avenge what he has called a “Christian genocide.” Then, on Christmas Day, Mr. Trump launched Tomahawk missiles at “terrorist scum” he said were responsible for killing Nigerian Christians.
Now, the activists have seized on his support to orchestrate a rapid shift in American foreign policy toward Nigeria, with major consequences for the West African nation, including the threat of more bombings. “Our challenge,” said Nina Shea, an activist and the former commissioner for the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, “was to break through the narrative that this was not religious based.”
Mr. Trump told The New York Times recently that he would approve more strikes if Christians continued to be killed, and last month, senior U.S. leaders were in Nigeria’s capital to announce a new, closer military partnership between the two nations.
>A Shocking MassacreFor years, the Christian activists had tried to get the Biden administration to re-designate Nigeria a Country of Particular Concern, a category reserved for nations where religious freedom is threatened, making them vulnerable to sanctions.
Mr. Trump had put Nigeria on the list during his first term, but the Biden administration lifted the designation in 2021. The State Department’s report on religious freedom in Nigeria that year said there were mass killings of both Christians and Muslims, but it did not single out Christians as a singular target.
Post too long. Click here to view the full text.