{"id":656361,"date":"2025-12-26T18:31:39","date_gmt":"2025-12-26T18:31:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/656361\/"},"modified":"2025-12-26T18:31:39","modified_gmt":"2025-12-26T18:31:39","slug":"trump-supporters-hail-us-strikes-in-nigeria-as-amazing-christmas-present-republicans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/656361\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump supporters hail US strikes in Nigeria as \u2018amazing Christmas present\u2019 | Republicans"},"content":{"rendered":"

The US\u2019s Christmas Day strikes<\/a> against Islamic State targets in Nigeria<\/a> have been met with praise by Donald Trump<\/a> supporters who for months had been agitating for the president to respond forcefully to the killings of Christians in the country.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can\u2019t think of a better way to celebrate Christmas than by avenging the death of Christians through the justified mass killing of Islamic terrorists,\u201d the far-right political activist Laura Loomer posted on X. \u201cYou\u2019ve got to love it! Death to all Islamic terrorists! Thank you.\u201d<\/p>\n

Loomer said she had been informed by the US defense department \u2013 which the Trump administration<\/a> calls the war department \u2013 that the American cruise missile strikes carried out with the Nigerian government\u2019s cooperation had been \u201ca direct response to [IS] jihadi terrorists killing Christians in Nigeria\u201d.<\/p>\n

The US House member Randy Fine, a Florida Republican who in November supported a congressional resolution<\/a> calling for Nigeria to be designated a \u201ccountry of particular concern\u201d due to its religious violence, described Thursday\u2019s strikes as an \u201camazing Christmas present!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWith Muslim terrorists attacking Christians in Nigeria, Syria, and even Europe \u2013 simply for refusing to submit to Islam \u2013 the president is showing that we will no longer tolerate these barbarians,\u201d Fine said on X<\/a>, after suggesting earlier in December that \u201cmainstream Muslims\u201d should be \u201cdestroyed\u201d.<\/p>\n

The uniformity of the Republicans\u2019 response comes in contrast to a campaign involving economic pressure as well as airstrikes on alleged drug boats that the Trump administration is waging on Venezuela to oust its president, Nicol\u00e1s Maduro. Some Republicans<\/a> have warned that the history of US \u201cregime change\u201d efforts are not promising and have warned against direct military strikes on Venezuela.<\/p>\n

Attacks on Christians by Islamic extremist groups in Nigeria<\/a> such as Boko Haram had been drawing increased attention from US Christian groups that are generally aligned with Trump.<\/p>\n

\u201cDo not test President Trump\u2018s resolved [sic] in this matter,\u201d said a post<\/a> from the Republican US House member Riley Moore of West Virginia, who introduced the Nigeria-related congressional resolution in November. \u201cTonight\u2019s strike in coordination with the Nigerian government is just the first step to ending the slaughter of Christians and the security crisis affecting all Nigerians.\u201d<\/p>\n

In further comments on Friday, other Republican lawmakers praised Trump for carrying out the strikes. North Carolina senator Ted Budd, a Republican, said<\/a> that IS \u201cis responsible for the deaths of thousands of Christians & religious minorities in Nigeria\u201d.<\/p>\n

Budd wrote that Trump\u2019s \u201cdecisive strikes will save lives & protect religious freedom. May God bless our brave men & women in uniform.\u201d<\/p>\n

Congressman Bill Huizenga, a Michigan Republican who recently led a delegation to Nigeria, said that attitudes within the Nigerian government were \u201cbeginning to turn in favor of protecting Christians \u2013 in addition to taking actions against those terrorizing Christians and moderate Muslims\u201d.<\/p>\n

Senator Tom Cotton, an Arkansas Republican, said on X<\/a> that he commended the Trump administration as well as American troops for \u201cthese strikes against bloodthirsty [IS] savages who are not only persecuting Christians, but also have killed many Americans\u201d.<\/p>\n

Pressure on the administration to act in Nigeria had been building since July, when the US Commission on International Religious Freedom issued an advisory<\/a> that said the Nigerian government was \u201coften unable to prevent or slow to react to violent attacks by Fulani herders, bandit gangs, and insurgent entities such as JAS\/Boko Haram and the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP)\u201d.<\/p>\n

In October, Ted Cruz \u2013 a Republican senator from Texas \u2013 said the US was able to identify the perpetrators of anti-Christian violence in Nigeria \u201cand I intend to hold them accountable\u201d. Cruz said that since 2009, \u201cover 50,000 Christians in Nigeria have been massacred, and over 18,000 churches and 2,000 Christian schools have been destroyed\u201d.<\/p>\n

At the recent AmericaFest, a four-day gathering of US conservative organized by Turning Point USA, the Trinidadian rap star Nicki Minaj<\/a> spoke with Charlie Kirk\u2019s widow, Erika Kirk, on the oppression of Christians in Nigeria. She said she loved Nigeria in part because her pastor is Nigerian.<\/p>\n

\u201cHearing that people are being kidnapped \u2013 while they\u2019re in church, people are being kidnapped, people are being killed, brutalized, all because of their religion \u2013 that should spark outrage in America, and that\u2019s what it\u2019s doing,\u201d Minaj said.<\/p>\n

Thursday\u2019s strikes in Nigeria come less than a week after the US hit more than 70 Islamic State networks and infrastructure in Syria in response to an attack that killed two American military service members as well as a civilian.<\/p>\n

Adm Brad Cooper, commander of the American military\u2019s Central Command (Centcom), said the Syrian strikes were \u201ccritical to preventing [IS] from inspiring terrorist plots and attacks against the US homeland\u201d.<\/p>\n

Hegseth on Friday warned of additional US strikes against IS targets in northern Nigeria.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The US\u2019s Christmas Day strikes against Islamic State targets in Nigeria have been met with praise by Donald…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":656362,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5311],"tags":[49,978,659],"class_list":{"0":"post-656361","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-united-states","8":"tag-united-states","9":"tag-us","10":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115787299785291017","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/656361","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=656361"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/656361\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/656362"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=656361"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=656361"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=656361"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}