Trump calls Tinubu’s government ‘a disgrace’ in new remarks, threatens to cut subsidy to Nigeria
Earlier this week, 25 schoolgirls were abducted in Kebbi State.
Donald Trump has labelled Nigeria “a disgrace” under the administration of President Bola Tinubu, asserting that Mr Tinubu’s failure to curb Christian killings might prompt him to halt the subsidy Nigeria has long benefited from the U.S.
Mr Trump had unkind words for Mr Tinubu’s administration on Fox News Radio’s The Brian Kilmeade Show on Friday night.
“I think Nigeria is a disgrace,” Mr Trump asserted on Fox News. “The whole thing is a disgrace. They’re killing people by the thousands. It’s a genocide. And I’m really angry about it.”
He called the Nigerian leader ineffective over his inability and inaction to stop the murders of Christians, whom he said were dying by the thousands, reiterating it to be a “genocide.”
He suggested that Mr Tinubu’s government was not deserving of the foreign aid it benefits from the U.S. and threatened to axe the aid.
“And we pay, you know, we give a lot of subsidy to Nigeria, which we’re going to end up stopping,” the U.S. president said on Fox News Radio.
Mr Trump said he was angry with the ineffective manner in which Mr Tinubu was handling the religious crisis, asserting the matter did not gain global attention until he waded into it.
“The government’s done nothing. They are very ineffective. They’re killing Christians at will. And you know, until I got involved in it two weeks ago — nobody even talked about it.”
Earlier this month, Mr Trump designated Nigeria a “Country of Particular Concern” over what he described as unchecked targeted killings of the Christian faithful.
He threatened to invade Nigeria with the U.S. military to rein in Islamic extremists. His remarks escalated tensions between both nations as acolytes of both presidents attacked each other on social media.
Mr Tinubu’s supporters and prominent Muslims denied that Christians were being persecuted, asserting that the activities of criminals cut across all ethnicities and religions. But Christian leaders have asserted the contrary, claiming they were being killed by Islamic extremists and that the government tried to downplay the actual figures of fatalities.
Earlier this week, 25 schoolgirls were abducted in Kebbi State. Mr Tinubu’s supporters argued that Muslim students were kidnapped in the incident. They said the incident supports their assertion that all religions were victims of bandits and terrorists.
Two worshippers were killed in a church on Tuesday evening in Eruku, Kwara State, and over 300 students of St. Mary’s Catholic School in Niger State were kidnapped around 4 a.m. on Friday, renewing concerns about MrTrump’s remarks that Christians were being targeted.
Still, Mr Tinubu sent his National Security Adviser, Nuhu Ribadu, to the U.S. on Thursday to discuss with his U.S. colleague, Pete Hegseth, how Nigeria can cooperate with America to end the bloodshed.
U.S. lawmaker Riley Moore sought a pardon for Sunday Jackson, a Christian farmer convicted and sentenced to death for killing an Islamic Fulani herdsman who attacked his farm. Nigeria’s Supreme Court upheld the ruling in March 2025.
