An audio clip recorded aboard Air Force One on Sunday captured President Donald Trump reaffirming that the White House is considering the use of U.S. troops or airstrikes in Nigeria to combat Islamist extremist groups. The 23-second clip follows Trump’s earlier directive to the Pentagon to “prepare for possible action.”
As ABC News reports:
Trump was asked if he could envisage boots on the ground or air strikes, to which he said, “Could be.”
“They’re killing the Christians and killing them in very large numbers, we’re not going to allow that to happen,” he said.
Trump’s comments come after he instructed the Pentagon on Saturday to prepare for possible action in Nigeria, saying the U.S. could go in “guns-a-blazing” and halt aid if the government there “continues to allow the killing of 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 in a post on his social media platform. “I am hereby instructing our Department of War to prepare for possible action.”
He added a stark warning: “WARNING: THE NIGERIAN GOVERNMENT BETTER MOVE FAST!”
Two days earlier, Trump designated Nigeria a “country of particular concern,” a formal label reserved for nations deemed “responsible for particularly severe violations of religious freedom.” In his remarks, Trump warned that “Christianity is facing an existential threat in Nigeria.”
Nigeria ranks seventh on Open Doors’ 2025 World Watch List for Christian persecution. Militant groups such as Boko Haram and the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) have been linked to more than 50,000 Christian deaths since 2009 and widespread destruction of homes, churches, and villages.
Across sub-Saharan Africa, an estimated 16.2 million Christians have been displaced amid escalating violence from jihadist organizations.
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