(LifeSiteNews) — President Donald Trump announced that he is preparing the U.S. military to potentially “wipe out” Islamic terrorists who are killing and kidnapping thousands of Christians each year.

“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,” Trump wrote Saturday on Truth Social.

“I am hereby instructing 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!”

Asked Sunday whether he might use military force in the country, the most populous in Africa, Trump affirmed he was not ruling out the possibility.

“Could be, I mean, a lot of things — I envisage a lot of things,” he told journalists. “They’re killing the Christians and killing them in very large numbers. We’re not going to allow that to happen.”

Trump raised the alarm on Friday about the “mass slaughter” of Christians in Nigeria, declaring it a “country of particular concern,” a designation reserved for governments who perpetrate or tolerate “particularly severe violations of religious freedom,” such as that of China, Pakistan, and North Korea.

In his Friday Truth Social post, Trump announced he was tasking Congress with investigating the threat Christians face in Nigeria.

“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!

Best-selling rapper Nicki Minaj praised the message from Trump on Saturday, decrying religious persecution.

“Reading this made me feel a deep sense of gratitude,” Minaj posted to X. “We live in a country where we can freely worship God. No group should ever be persecuted for practicing their religion.”

“Numerous countries all around the world are being affected by this horror & it’s dangerous to pretend we don’t notice,” she continued. “Thank you to The President & his team for taking this seriously,” the rapper added. “God bless every persecuted Christian. Let’s remember to lift them up in prayer.”

 U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Mike Waltz thanked Minaj, who has a massive following, for speaking out in support of persecuted Christians and invited her to the U.S. Embassy in New York to discuss the matter, an invitation she said she would be “honored” to accept.

A 2025 Global Christian Relief (GCR) Red List report has found that Nigeria is the most dangerous place for Christians in the world. The report detailed how most of the killings in Nigeria occur in northern states governed by Islamic sharia law, where Christians “often live in remote villages in semi-arid landscapes, making them particularly vulnerable to attacks.” 

The ongoing violence against Christians in the country has been so frequent that it has been denounced by international observers as a “genocide,” including by secular liberal Bill Maher. 

“This is so much more of a genocide attempt than what is going on in Gaza. They are literally attempting to wipe out the Christian population of an entire country,” he recently said while talking with GOP Congresswoman Nancy Mace. 

Violence against Christians in Nigeria intensified after 1999 when 12 northern states adopted Sharia law. The rise of the terrorist group Boko Haram in 2009 also intensified Christian persecution. The group famously kidnapped hundreds of schoolgirls in 2014; 87 of them are still listed as “missing.”

From 2009 to 2022, over 50,000 Christians had been killed in the country, an Open Doors report found, and the violence has since escalated. A 2024 report found that more than 8,000 Nigerian Christians were killed and thousands more were abducted in 2023, including dozens of priests, making it the bloodiest year on record for Islamic attacks against Christians in the country.

There were 3,100 Christians killed and 2,830 Christians kidnapped in Nigeria in 2024, far more than other countries in the same year, according to the latest Open Doors World Watch List. Attacks continue to spread southward from the Muslim-majority north, displacing families, destroying homes, and burning churches and schools.

Anja Hoffman, executive director of the Observatory on Intolerance and Discrimination Against Christians in Europe, told LifeSiteNews contributor Jonathon Van Maren that the Nigerian government’s inaction enables the epidemic of violence.

A key factor in this ongoing crisis is impunity,” Hoffman told Van Maren. “Government and security services frequently fail to respond. Although President Bola Tinubu’s 2023 election raised hopes for stronger protection, meaningful change has not materialized. Security forces remain under-resourced, prosecutions are rare, and many local authorities deny a religious motive, making justice elusive.” 

Recent attacks in the country have seen the abduction and even murder of Catholic priests and seminarians. In a July press release, the Diocese of Auchi in Edo State reported that several gunmen attacked the Immaculate Conception Minor Seminary, killing one security guard and kidnapping three seminarians.

The incident marks the second time the seminary was attacked within a year. On October 27, 2024, assailants attacked the seminary and attempted to abduct two seminarians. In a courageous act, Father Thomas Oyode, the seminary’s rector, offered himself in their place. As a result, Oyode was held captive for a total of 11 days before being released.