By Bethany Blankley
The Center Square

President Donald Trump has directed the Department of War to prepare for possible action in Nigeria to target Islamic militants committing genocide against 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,” the president said on Truth Social. “I am hereby instructuring 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.”In response, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth said, “Yes Sir. The killing of innocent Christians in Nigeria — and anywhere — must end immediately. The Department of War is preparing for action. Either the Nigerian Government protects Christians, or we will kill the Islamic Terrorists who are committing these horrible atrocities.”

“Christianity is facing an existential threat in Nigeria. Thousands of Christians are being killed. Radical Islamists are responsible for this mass slaughter. I am hereby making Nigeria a country of particular concern [CPC] but that is the least of it,” Trump said in a Truth Social post.

“When Christians, or any such group, is slaughtered like what is happening in Nigeria (3,100 versus 4,476 worldwide), something must be done. The United States cannot stand by while such atrocities are happening in Nigeria, and numerous other countries. We stand ready, willing, and able to save our great Christian population around the world.”

Trump made the decision after U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, called on him to protect Christian Nigerians and introduced a bill to do the same last month.

“I am deeply gratified to President Trump for making this determination,” Cruz said in an emailed statement to The Center Square. “I have fought for years to counter the slaughter and persecution of Christians in Nigeria, and this year introduced legislation that will lock in the designation made today.”

The CPC designation “is a critical step in holding accountable and changing the behavior of Nigerian officials who have facilitated and created an environment conducive to the outrages in Nigeria,” he added. “My legislation implements additional steps, including targeting those who implement blasphemy and sharia laws in Nigeria.”

Last month, Cruz introduced the Nigeria Religious Freedom Accountability Act of 2025 to protect Christians and other religious minorities from persecution by Islamic militants. The bill, if signed into law, directs the federal government to impose sanctions on the Nigeria government and its officials “who facilitate Islamist jihadist violence and the imposition of blasphemy laws” against non-Muslim Nigerians.

“Nigerian Christians are being targeted and executed for their faith by Islamist terrorist groups and are being forced to submit to sharia law and blasphemy laws across Nigeria. It is long past time to impose real costs on the Nigerian officials who facilitate these activities,” Cruz said when introducing it.

In the first 220 days of this year, more than 7,000 Christians were killed in Nigeria, a new report published by the International Society for Civil Liberties and Rule of Law (InterSociety) states. Persecution of Christians escalated in 2009 after an Islamic terrorist group Boko Haram uprising. Since then, an estimated 189,000 civilians have been killed, 125,000 of whom were Christians, InterSociety, a Nigerian non-governmental organization, says.

By 2015, Boko Haram began self-identifying as ISWAP (Islamic State West Africa Province). ISWAP, Fulani fighters, soldiers with Operation Safe Haven, a joint military force, and other Islamic terrorist groups are targeting Christians for annihilation, according to multiple reports, The Center Square reported.

Under two laws, the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998 and Frank Wolf International Religious Freedom Act of 2016, the president is required to review religious freedom in every country and make several designations based on the findings of “systematic, ongoing, egregious violations of religious freedom.” Examples include torture, forced disappearances and murder, among others. The IRFA requires CPC designations; the Wolf Act requires non-state actors to receive similar designations as Entities of Particular Concern (EPC) and be added to a Special Watch List (SWL).

CPC and other designations are made by the secretary of State. Those currently on the CPC list are Burma, People’s Republic of China, Cuba, Eritrea, Iran, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, Nicaragua, Pakistan, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan.

Countries currently on the SWL are Algeria, Azerbaijan, the Central African Republic, Comoros and Vietnam.

Those on the EPCs are al Qa’ida affiliate Al-Shabaab, Boko Haram, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, the Houthis, ISIS-Sahel (formerly known as ISIS-Greater Sahara), ISIS-West Africa, al Qa’ida affiliate Jamaat Nasr al-Islam wal Muslimin, and the Taliban.

Under the Biden administration, a record number of illegal border crossers, at least 1.6 million, were reported illegally entering the country from four CPCs: China, Cuba, Nicaragua and Russia, The Center Square exclusively reported.

Trump directed the leaders of the House Appropriations Committee to immediately look into the slaughter of Nigerian Christians and report back to him.

Others are also calling on Trump to take similar action to protect Christians in Sudan who are also facing genocide.