More from the Peace President!
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Some details on last night’s strikes:
A Defense Department official said Nigeria’s government approved the Christmas Day strikes and worked with the U.S. to carry them out. Trump’s post offered no further details about the action, including how many people were killed.
“The President was clear last month: the killing of innocent Christians in Nigeria (and elsewhere) must end,” Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth posted on X after Trump’s announcement.
U.S. Africa Command, which conducted the strike, said it was directed at militants “in known ISIS camps in Nigeria” and used intelligence from U.S. and Nigerian forces.
Nigeria has a population of 237 million people, roughly split between Muslims, who are predominant in the north, and Christians. Violence against Christians has escalated in northern Nigeria during the past decade, as Islamic extremists such as Boko Haram wage an insurgency against the country’s secular government and expand their influence in the region.
Trump’s base within the U.S. Christian political right has been calling for America to take action against the killings of Christians in Nigeria, including by reinstating Nigeria’s designation as a “country of particular concern,” which Trump also did last month.
Some activists have referred to the killings as a “Christian genocide,” though the White House hasn’t used that language. Nigerian officials have said the strife is more complicated than that.
Not clear yet whether we’re looking at a one off or a sustained campaign of missile strikes. Nigeria does have a capable air force and so it’s not as if the government is incapable of hitting targets… it’s just that the targets are small, mobile, and not particularly vulnerable to one off attacks. This feels like meat for Trump’s base… which is of course why it’s ridiculous to focus on Trump’s personal feelings with respect to peace and war. Trump conducts foreign policy as a combination of domestic policy and personal wealth aggregation, which means that he will make war in foreign countries when he sees it to his personal political and financial advantage to make war.
There is no Realism; there is no Restraint; there is simply Trump. Beltway foreign policy analysts have tried very hard to pretend otherwise, but this is where we are.
See also Peter Henne on some potential follow-on effects of this decision.