Trump's week in review: Targeting ISIS in Nigeria, $3K to illegal immigrants who self-deport

4. Trump announces strike against ISIS terrorists in Nigeria 

In a statement posted to Truth Social Thursday, Trump announced that “Tonight, at my direction as Commander in Chief, the United States launched a powerful and deadly strike against ISIS Terrorist Scum in Northwest Nigeria, who have been targeting and viciously killing, primarily, innocent Christians, at levels not seen for many years, and even Centuries!”

Trump added that “I have previously warned these Terrorists that if they did not stop the slaughtering of Christians, there would be hell to pay, and tonight, there was.” 

“The Department of War executed numerous perfect strikes, as only the United States is capable of doing,” he continued. “Under my leadership, our Country will not allow Radical Islamic Terrorism to prosper.” 

Trump concluded his post by wishing a “MERRY CHRISTMAS to all, including the dead Terrorists,” vowing that “there will be many more if their slaughter of Christians continues.”

The strike against ISIS terrorists in Nigeria came less than two months after the president designated Nigeria a “country of particular concern,” a label reserved for countries that engage in or tolerate aggressive violations of religious freedom. 

Days later, Trump insisted that “if the Nigerian Government continues to allow the killing of Christians,” U.S. troops “may very well go into that now disgraced country, ‘guns-a-blazing,’ to completely wipe out the Islamic Terrorists who are committing” acts of violence against Christians. 

Religious freedom advocates highlighted the dire situation faced by Nigerian Christians at an Emergency Summit on Crimes Against Christians held at the U.S. Capitol earlier this month, mentioning how over 7,000 Christians have been killed in Nigeria in 2025, while over 19,000 Nigerian churches have been “set on fire or destroyed” since 2009.