Yves here. We must note that Andrew Korybko’s piece on the Nigeria Christmas bombing argued that the US was pursuing regional objectives as well as trying to throw some meat to the Trump base. But if that gambit works, it would confirm the criticism that Tucker Carlson has made of some of Trump’s hard-core Christian backers with respect to Israel: Christians do not support the killing of innocents. As we explain shortly, the odds are high that the Trump claim of going after ISIS is strained. And it is similarly hypocritical to mount attacks during the Christmas, where one of the classic greetings is “Peace on earth, good will to men.”
From Korybko:
In exchange for helping Nigeria defeat at least some of the terrorists that have been causing trouble for a while already, which the national armed forces have thus far been unable to due to corruption to poor leadership, the US likely expects privileged access to its emerging mining industry. This …. pairs with the third objective of Nigeria distancing itself from BRICS in the sense of the US beating China to the chase with this opportunity.
The attainment of the three prior objectives would lead to the fourth and final one whereby Nigeria could then restore its regional leadership role under America’s aegis. The US is uncomfortable with the Russian-allied Sahelian Alliance/Confederation, whose members – Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger – just announced a joint military battalion after their latest summit for better tackling terrorist threats. While their anti-terrorist goals formally advance US interests, the multipolar example set by them doesn’t.
The spree of patriotic military coups that swept across those countries removed French and therefore Western influence from their armed forces and political leaderships. This in turn led to enormous mining opportunities for Russia, including uranium in Niger, which borders conflict-afflicted Northern Nigeria. Therefore, it should be assumed that the US envisages “Leading from Behind” as Nigeria reasserts Western influence over the Sahel on its behalf, but likely after some time and not right away.
I chose to run the Common Dreams coverage of the latest Trump sin due to Korybko amplifying the misleading Trump ISIS justification in his headline: Why’d Trump Bomb ISIS In Nigeria On Christmas? As one of his readers observed in comments:
Luis A. Melendez Albizu
Because he didn’t. ISIS is a CIA/Mossad mercenary force. The US is not and will not bomb its mercenary force. This is like Syria, where Clinton, Trump & Biden claimed to be bombing ISIS, when in reality they bombed some innocent victims while helping ISIS. So Trump probably just bombed some innocent goat herders so he could claim to be bombing ISIS.
By Brett Wilkins, staff writer at Common Dreams. Originally published at Common Dreams
President Donald Trump—the self-described “most anti-war president in history”—has now ordered the bombing of more countries than any president in history as US forces carried out Christmas day strikes on what the White Houseclaimed were Islamic State militants killing Christians in Nigeria.
“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 said Thursday in a post on his Truth Social network.
“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 president continued. “The Department of War executed numerous perfect strikes, as only the United States is capable of doing.”
“Under my leadership, our Country will not allow Radical Islamic Terrorism to prosper,” Trump added. “May God Bless our Military, and MERRY CHRISTMAS to all, including the dead Terrorists, of which there will be many more if their slaughter of Christians continues.”
.@POTUS “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… pic.twitter.com/ct7rUW128t
— Department of War 🇺🇸 (@DeptofWar) December 26, 2025
A US Department of Defense official speaking on condition of anonymity told the Associated Press that the United States worked with Nigeria to conduct the bombing, and that the government of Nigerian President Bola Tinubu—who is a Muslim—approved the attacks.
It was not immediately known how many people were killed or wounded in the strikes, or whether there are any civilian casualties.
The Nigerian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that “terrorist violence in any form, whether directed at Christians, Muslims, or other communities, remains an affront to Nigeria’s values and to international peace and security.”
The US bombings followed a threat last month by Trump to attack Nigeria with “guns-a-blazing” if the country’s government did not curb attacks on Christians.
Northwestern Nigeria—including Sokoto, Zamfara, Katsina, and parts of Kaduna State—is suffering a complex security crisis, plagued by armed criminal groups, herder-farmer disputes, and Islamist militants including Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP/ISIS) and Boko Haram. Both Christians and Muslims have been attacked.
Since emerging in Borno State in 2009, Boko Haram has waged war on the Nigerian state—which it regards as apostate—not against any particular religious group. In fact, the majority of its victims have been Muslims.
“According to the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project, more Muslims than Christians have been targeted in recent years,” Chloe Atkinson recently wrote for Common Dreams. “Boko Haram has massacred worshipers in mosques, torched markets in Muslim-majority areas, and threatened their own coreligionists.”
“It is true that Christian communities in the north-central regions have suffered unimaginable horrors as raids have left villages in ashes, children murdered in their beds, and churches reduced to rubble,” she said. “The April massacre in Zike and the June bloodbath in Yelwata are prime examples of the atrocities taking place in Nigeria.”
“The crisis in Nigeria is not a holy war against Christianity,” Atkinson continued. “Instead, it’s a devastating cocktail of poverty, climate-driven land disputes, and radical ideologies that prey on everyone and not just any distinct group.”
“By framing Nigeria’s conflict as an existential threat to Christians alone, Trump is not shining a spotlight on the victims,” she added. “Instead, he is weaponizing right-wing conspiracy theories to stoke Islamophobia, the same toxic playbook he used to fuel his ban on Muslims, and which left refugee families shattered at America’s borders.”
Former libertarian US Congressman Justin Amash (R-Mich.) noted on X that “there’s no authority for strikes on terrorists in Nigeria or anywhere on Earth,” adding that the 2001 Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF)—which was approved by every member of Congress except then-Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.)—“is only for the perpetrators of the 9/11 attacks.”
“The War Powers Resolution doesn’t grant any authority beyond the Constitution,” Amash added. “Offensive military actions need congressional approval. The Framers of the Constitution divided war powers to protect the American people from war-eager executives. Whether the United States should engage in conflicts across the globe is a decision for the people’s representatives in Congress, not the president.”
What constitutional authority supports these strikes without a Congressinal declaration of war?
— Patrick Jaicomo (@pjaicomo) December 26, 2025
In addition to Nigeria, Trump—who says he deserves a Nobel Peace Prize—since 2017 has also ordered the bombing of Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, Libya, Pakistan, Somalia, Syria, and Yemen, as well as boats allegedly transporting drugs in the Caribbean Sea and Pacific Ocean. Trump has also deployed warships and thousands of US troops near Venezuela, which could become the next country attacked by a president who campaigned on a platform of “peace through strength.”
That’s more than the at least five countries attacked during the tenure of former President George W. Bush or the at least seven nations attacked on orders of then-President Barack Obama during the so-called War on Terror, which killed more than 940,000 people—including at least 432,000 civilians, according to the Costs of War Project at Brown University’s Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs.
Trump continued the war on ISIS in Iraq and Syria started by Obama in 2014. Promising to “bomb the shit out of” ISIS fighters and “take out their families,” Trump intensified the US campaign from a war of “attrition” to one of “annihilation,” according to his former defense secretary, Gen. James “Mad Dog” Mattis. Thousand of civilians were killed as cities such as Mosul, Iraq and Raqqa, Syria were flattened.
Trump declared victory over ISIS in 2018—and again the following year.
Some social media users suggested Trump’s “warmongering” is an attempt to distract from the Epstein files scandal and alleged administration cover-up.
“Bombing Nigeria won’t make us forget about the Epstein files,” said one X user.
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