President Donald Trump was heading to Florida on Friday, watching Fox News, when he saw the community run a story on how Christians had been being focused by Islamic teams in Nigeria, two sources acquainted with the matter advised NCS.
The president was “immediately” angered by it, one of many sources mentioned, and requested to get additional learn in on the problem. Shortly after Air Force One touched down in West Palm Beach, he started posting on Truth Social.
“Christianity is facing an existential threat in Nigeria. Thousands of Christians are being killed. Radical Islamists are responsible for this mass slaughter,” he posted, including that he is making Nigeria a “Country of Particular Concern” beneath the International Religious Freedom Act.
A White House official advised NCS the president has “been tracking this issue previously and had already begun thinking about Truthing it out.”
From there, the plight of Christians in Nigeria grew to become a point of interest of Trump’s throughout the weekend, main him to name instantly on his secretary of protection to “prepare for possible action” and warn the US would enter Nigeria “guns-a-blazing” to guard the Christian inhabitants of Africa’s most populous nation.
One of the sources acquainted with Trump’s considering on the problem advised NCS that the president’s threats towards the nation are supposed to “see how Nigeria responds.”
“It’s an ‘Art of the Deal’”-type technique, the supply mentioned. And a key a part of it has already been met with the meant impact: The actions by Islamist teams are gaining consideration due to his posts, they argued.
NCS has reached out to the White House for remark.
The plight of Nigeria’s Christians has been an animating topic for American conservatives for years, with a few of Trump’s prime allies, together with Sen. Ted Cruz, in current months calling for US intervention after claiming Nigeria’s authorities wasn’t doing sufficient to stop assaults on Christians.
Nigeria has denied the accusations, and each Christians and Muslims have been victims of assaults by radical Islamists in the nation.
Trump’s directive to the Pentagon to “prepare for possible action” in Nigeria — together with, in his telling, potential US boots on the bottom — caught many abruptly, together with in the army.
Personnel inside US Africa Command had been abruptly recalled to headquarters over the weekend following Trump’s publish on Saturday vowing potential army motion in Nigeria, two sources acquainted with the scenario advised NCS.
The publish left many questioning what the president needed the army to do, the sources mentioned. A small group of personnel with AFRICOM, which is predicated in Germany, had been shortly recalled to debate potential programs of motion.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth mentioned Saturday that the Pentagon was “preparing for action,” and one of many sources mentioned there was a request from the Pentagon to construct out numerous contingency plans.
It remained unclear what the plans entail, although creating contingency plans for a vary of eventualities to supply to the president and secretary of protection is likely one of the main capabilities of the army.
The snap-to response on Saturday was indicative of a broader frustration with the way in which potential coverage selections are relayed over social media, one of many sources acquainted mentioned, with little planning executed forward of time.
Trump, chatting with reporters aboard Air Force One on Sunday, declined to rule out sending American troops to Nigeria to guard Christians there.
“Could be,” Trump mentioned when requested in regards to the prospect of US troops or airstrikes. “I envisage a lot of things. They’re killing a record number of Christians in Nigeria,” the president advised reporters, saying different international locations in Africa had been doing comparable.
While Trump claimed a “mass slaughter” of Christians was underway in Nigeria, there exists a more nuanced reality on the bottom. Both Christians and Muslims — the 2 foremost non secular teams in the nation of greater than 230 million folks — have been victims of assaults by radical Islamists, consultants and analysts say.
The West African nation has grappled for years with deep-rooted safety issues which can be pushed by numerous elements, together with religiously motivated assaults. Observers say different violent conflicts come up from communal and ethnic tensions, in addition to disputes between farmers and herders over restricted entry to pure sources.
Massad Boulos, Trump’s adviser on Arab and African affairs, advised Nigerian media final month that “People of all religions and of all tribes are dying, and it is very unfortunate, and we even know that Boko Haram and ISIS are killing more Muslims than more Christians.”
The Nigerian authorities rejects claims that it isn’t doing sufficient to guard Christians from violence, saying it was bewildered by Trump’s suggestion of a potential army intervention.
“We are shocked that President Trump is mulling an invasion of our country,” Nigerian presidential spokesperson Bayo Onanuga advised NCS after the US president instructed the Pentagon to organize for attainable army motion.
Within US conservative circles, nonetheless, the scenario in Nigeria has induced rising alarm. Trump himself raised the problem throughout a first-term assembly with then-President Muhammadu Buhari on the White House in 2018.
“We are deeply concerned by religious violence in Nigeria, including the burning of churches and the killing and persecution of Christians. It’s a horrible story,” Trump mentioned throughout a joint information convention afterward.
Buhari mentioned he had defined to Trump the safety scenario in Nigeria was extra sophisticated than mere non secular persecution, saying teams typically used non secular violence as they pursued financial pursuits.
Nonetheless, Trump designated Nigeria a “Country of Particular Concern” two years later, citing “severe violations of religious freedom.” The Biden administration reversed the choice.
With Trump’s return to workplace got here a renewed effort by American conservatives to use strain on the Nigerian authorities to stem violence in opposition to Christians.
Trump, who has earned overwhelming help from evangelical Christians throughout his campaigns for president, vowed throughout final 12 months’s election to fight anti-Christian bias. And administration officers have said beforehand that defending Christians is a key tenet of Trump’s overseas coverage.
Paula White-Cain, the senior adviser to the White House religion workplace and Trump’s longtime non secular adviser, has beforehand traveled to Nigeria to minister. She thanked Trump on social media this weekend for his “strong stand on Christian persecution in Nigeria.”
Cruz, an evangelical Christian from Texas, is likely one of the GOP lawmakers who has been working to get his fellow Christians and Congress to designate Nigeria as a violator of non secular freedoms.
Cruz, who serves on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, launched a invoice in September to sanction Nigerian officers whom he accused of “ignoring and even facilitating the mass murder of Christians.” The measure would additionally require the State Department to redesignate Nigeria as a “Country of Particular Concern” — one thing the president famous in his first publish on the matter.
Last month, the problem was amplified on “Real Time with Bill Maher” on HBO. Maher mentioned Islamic militants in Nigeria had been “attempting to wipe out the Christian population of an entire country.” HBO is owned by NCS’s mum or dad firm, Warner Bros. Discovery.
None of these calls appeared to go so far as Trump did, nonetheless, in threatening US army motion on the bottom.
“If we attack, it will be fast, vicious, and sweet, just like the terrorist thugs attack our CHERISHED Christians,” he wrote.
How such an intervention is carried out stays to be seen. Last 12 months, the US completed a withdrawal of some 1,000 US troops from Niger, which neighbors Nigeria, ending a longtime presence in the nation.
NCS’s Nimi Princewill contributed to this report.