President Trump delivered what every concerned American should cheer as the ultimate Christmas gift: he formally put Nigeria back on the State Department’s “Country of Particular Concern” list and warned that Washington will take further action if Christians continue to be slaughtered. This was no empty rhetoric — the president publicly declared the scale of attacks against Nigerian Christians and demanded accountability from a government that has too often looked the other way.
The CPC designation is the harshest diplomatic rebuke the United States can hand down under the International Religious Freedom Act, and it opens the door to sanctions, aid restrictions, and real pressure on the perpetrators and their enablers. Americans who value religious liberty should see this not as grandstanding but as a necessary use of leverage to stop barbarism.
Experts on the ground and in Washington mirrored what millions of patriotic citizens were thinking — leaders like Foundation for Defense of Democracies adjunct senior fellow Peter Doran praised the president’s warning on Fox Report, calling it a forceful and morally right response to the ongoing targeting of Christians. Conservative America has been waiting for a commander-in-chief willing to call out persecution wherever it happens, and Doran’s voice on national television underscored that bold posture.
Of course, the global left and some Nigerian officials immediately protested, insisting the violence is not religiously motivated and accusing critics of inflating numbers. Those denials ring hollow to the victims and their families, and they should not be allowed to derail accountability; when churches burn and whole communities are driven from their homes, the international community must act.
When words are backed by policy, they matter — the Trump administration’s warnings were followed by targeted U.S. military action against Islamist militants in Nigeria on Christmas Day, a reminder that America will not always sit on its hands while persecutors terrorize the innocent. That operation, coordinated with Nigerian authorities according to reporting, demonstrated that decisive measures can be taken when political will exists.
Republican lawmakers and conservative activists are already moving to translate moral outrage into law, proposing sanctions and measures to choke off the funding and networks that enable these terror campaigns. This is exactly how a free nation protects religious liberty abroad — by using every tool of statecraft to punish perpetrators and protect the vulnerable, not by wringing hands and issuing weak statements.
Hardworking Americans understand that defending religious freedom is not optional or parochial — it is core to who we are. President Trump’s decisive actions in Nigeria show the conservative spine that restores American leadership and tells the world: if you target Christians, you will face consequences. Patriots should stand behind this administration as it delivers on the promise to protect the persecuted and uphold the moral order.
