Trump Orders Pentagon to Prepare Military Action Over Nigeria

President Donald Trump this week designated Nigeria a “country of particular concern,” said Christianity faces an “existential threat,” and ordered the Defense Department to prepare for possible military action while warning he would cut U.S. aid if Nigeria does not act. He accused “radical Islamists” of mass slaughter and vowed any U.S. attack would be “fast, vicious, and sweet,” remarks Nigerian officials have called inflammatory and inaccurate. President Bola Tinubu and the foreign ministry said Nigeria protects freedom of religion and will defend citizens of all faiths, and a senior Tinubu aide suggested the president hopes to meet with Trump to resolve differences. Experts and reporting note the violence is complex—driven by groups such as Boko Haram and ISWAP as well as communal, ethnic and resource conflicts—and that many victims are Muslim as well as Christian. The move revives a designation Trump made in his first term that was removed under President Biden and has prompted diplomatic pushback and calls for engagement rather than escalation.