US President, Donald Trump escalated his criticism of Nigeria on Friday night, November 21, publicly branding the country “a disgrace” as he renewed accusations that the government is failing to protect Christians from extremist violence.
Speaking on a conservative radio program, Trump repeated his threat to take potential military action against Islamist militants in Nigeria if the government does not take “do more” to stop attacks on Christian communities.
“Nigeria is a disgrace. The whole thing is a disgrace,” Trump said. “They’re killing people by the thousands. It’s a genocide, and I’m really angry about it. And we pay, you know, we give a lot of subsidies to Nigeria. We’re going to end up stopping.”
Trump’s comments reinforce the administration’s narrative that Christians in Nigeria are being uniquely targeted, a claim that has gained significant traction in right-wing circles in the US. This perspective is applied despite the country’s complex history of ethnoreligious conflict in which both Christians and Muslims have suffered mass casualties from various armed groups and terrorists.
The President’s broadcast came just one day after US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth met with Nigeria’s National Security Adviser, Nuhu Ribadu, at the Pentagon. The high-level meeting was aimed at reinforcing the Trump administration’s claim that Christians in Nigeria are facing “horrific violence.”
Hegseth posted on X that under President Trump’s leadership, the Defence Department (referred to by the administration as the “Department of War” or DOW) is “working aggressively with Nigeria to end the persecution of Christians by jihadist terrorists.”
A subsequent statement from the Defence Department confirmed that Hegseth and Ribadu discussed “tangible progress” on curbing violence against Christians and combating jihadist groups operating in West Africa.
