President Trump announced on Friday that Nigeria would once again be listed as a Country of Particular Concern (CPC), a designation given to governments “engaged in or tolerated systematic, ongoing, and egregious violations of religious freedom,” after the African nation was removed from this classification under the Biden Administration.
“Christianity is facing an existential threat in Nigeria,” President Trump said in a statement. “Thousands of Christians are being killed. Radical Islamists are responsible for this mass slaughter. I am hereby making Nigeria a ‘COUNTRY OF PARTICULAR CONCERN’ — But that is the least of it.”
Trump further announced that his administration is going beyond the designation, tapping members of the House Appropriations Committee to investigate and compile a report on the violence: “The United States cannot stand by while such atrocities are happening in Nigeria, and numerous other Countries. We stand ready, willing, and able to save our Great Christian population around the World!”
Numerous evangelical leaders spoke out against the Biden Administration’s 2021 decision to lift the CPC designation on Nigeria, a nation that sees thousands of Christians massacred each year at the hands of muslim jihadists. Since that time, groups like the Family Research Council have continuously been petitioning the government to reverse course.
The then-administration was also criticized for the timing of its decision to lift the designation, which came one day before Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s visit to Nigeria to “discuss furthering cooperation on global health security, expanding energy access and economic growth, and revitalizing democracy.”
The CPC designation is generally accompanied by economic sanctions, a move that places further pressure on the government of the offending nation.
While some have tried to argue that Nigerian authorities are not to blame for the Jihadist attacks targeting Christian communities, Senator Ted Cruz recently highlighted the government’s direct link to the attacks.
“Nigeria’s federal government and a dozen state governments enforce blasphemy laws in their criminal and sharia codes, and they ignore or facilitate mob violence targeting Christians,” Cruz told Fox News earlier this month, calling for accountability. “Since 2009, over 50,000 Christians in Nigeria have been massacred, and over 20,000 churches and Christian schools have been destroyed. These atrocities are directly linked to the policies of Nigerian federal and state officials.”
A report released in August revealed that the violence against Christians, which already outmatched any other nation, was exponentially increasing. In the first 220 days of 2025, the report found that 7,000 followers of Jesus were brutally murdered for their faith—an average of over 30 per day—nearly doubling the numbers from the year prior. The jihadist attacks are also intensely barbaric, often including setting fire to homes and churches, beheadings, rape, kidnappings, and the use of machetes, indiscriminately targeting entire Christian families—men, women, children, and the elderly.
Only days prior to Trump’s announcement, Tony Perkins, who serves as President of the Family Research Council, joined a group of Christians in a letter to “fervently urge” the administration to redesignate Nigeria as a CPC.
“We support the recommendation for Nigeria’s CPC designation by the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom and in bills recently introduced in Congress by Senator Ted Cruz and Representative Chris Smith. Even talk show host Bill Maher, who is not a Christian, was emphatic that there needs to be a meaningful American response to the ‘systematic killing of Christians in Nigeria,’” the letter stated.
“The last several years have seen a burgeoning of violent attacks specifically targeting rural Christians in the country’s Middle Belt, while the government in Abuja barely lifts a finger to protect them,” they continued. “We believe that, after nearly five years of simply ‘watching’ the arrest of individuals on harsh blasphemy charges and the relentless massacre and persecution of defenseless Christians solely for their faith, assigning only Special Watch List status would be a weak and legally inadequate response. Such a move would dishonor religious freedom as a core pillar of U.S. foreign policy and further reinforce the previous administration’s downgrade and sidelining of the targeted killing of Christians. We, therefore, respectfully urge you to designate Nigeria as a CPC without further delay.”
Perkins applauded President Trump’s announcement on Friday.
“This is very good to see,” Perkins wrote. “During my time as chairman of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom under President Trump’s first administration, we were able to obtain this CPC designation on Nigeria because of its atrocious record of tolerating religious persecution. The incoming Biden administration immediately reversed the decision. Elections have life and death consequences.”
The President’s actions toward Nigeria represent another stark contrast with the Biden administration. While religious freedom in America has been championed by President Trump, with the establishment of the Religious Liberty Commission earlier this year, the administration is properly recognizing that the targeting of Christians globally must also be confronted. The previous Administration, on the other hand, was openly anti-Christian, with Perkins warning at the time that “Biden’s anti-faith climate made it open season on Christians—at home and abroad.”
