U.S. President Donald Trump has once again threatened possible military action in Nigeria over the alleged killings of Christians, days after the Nigerian presidency called for dialogue to address the concerns.
Speaking with reporters aboard Air Force One, Trump was asked whether he was considering deploying US troops to Nigeria or launching air strikes.
He replied, “Could be, I mean, a lot of things — I envisage a lot of things,” insisting that the United States would not tolerate the continued killing of Christians.
“They’re killing the Christians and killing them in very large numbers. We’re not going to allow that to happen,” Trump said.
His comments followed an explosive post on Truth Social on Saturday, in which he revealed that he had directed the Pentagon to draft a possible plan of attack on Nigeria.
This came a day after he warned that Christianity faced an “existential threat” in Africa’s most populous nation.
In his post, Trump cautioned that if Nigeria failed to halt the killings, the US attack would be “fast, vicious, and sweet, just like the terrorist thugs attack our CHERISHED Christians.”
Responding on Sunday, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s spokesperson, Daniel Bwala, told AFP that Nigeria remained a key partner of the United States in the global fight against terrorism. He urged calm, saying, “When leaders meet, there would be better outcomes.”
“Nigeria welcomes US support to fight terrorism as long as it respects our territorial integrity,” he added.
Bwala also advised against taking Trump’s online remarks literally. “We know that Donald Trump has his own style of communication,” he said, suggesting that the post may have been an attempt to push for a direct meeting between both leaders to address security concerns.
Earlier, in a post on X, Bwala hinted that a meeting between Tinubu and Trump could take place soon, noting that any disagreements over whether terrorists in Nigeria target Christians specifically—or victims across all faiths—would be resolved when both leaders meet, whether at the State House or the White House.
Speaking from Washington, Bwala declined to provide details on when the meeting might occur.
Trump had posted on Friday that “thousands of Christians are being killed” and accused “Radical Islamists” of carrying out mass killings. Nigerian authorities, however, rejected this narrative, insisting that attacks in the country are not targeted at one religious group.
“The characterisation of Nigeria as religiously intolerant does not reflect our national reality,” President Tinubu said in a statement on Saturday.
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