By Dr. Greg Cochran, ICC Fellow

In cooperation with the Nigerian government, the Trump administration recently launched a Christmas attack against Islamic State group strongholds in northwest Nigeria.

Political sceptics panned the move as chicanery — a diversion tactic by the president to distract from the Epstein files, ICE arrests, Middle East policies, or something else. Political supporters celebrated the action as though Santa Claus himself had delivered a spectacular gift to Nigeria and the world on Christmas Day. Realistically, however, the actions were measured, not spectacular in either a negative or positive way.

From this measured perspective, the president’s actions will not stop the spread of ISIS or Islamic terror in Nigeria. Much more energy than that expended this past Christmas would be needed to halt such horrendous violence. But even if the president’s actions were not utterly decisive, they were more meaningful than the cynics might admit. President Trump, in association with President Tinubu, confronted Islamic terror in Nigeria in a very public, internationally noticeable way.

Early indications are that these actions in Nigeria have helped in at least two ways: by fostering confrontation and by providing clarity.

Concerning the confrontation, the point is obvious. Violence has persisted in northern Nigeria for more than a decade. And many observers believed the trendlines were worsening. As International Christian Concern (ICC) reported, since Bola Tinubu took office in 2023, more than 10,000 Christians have been killed, and hundreds have been abducted. More than 3 million Nigerians have been displaced from their homes.

In the first seven months of 2025, more than 7,000 Christians were killed in the violence — an average of 35 Christians killed each day. Trump and Tinubu have now directly and undeniably confronted the violence.

While many westerners might prefer a world without violence of any kind, including government-sanctioned violence against bad actors, armies do exist for a reason. Indeed, Scripture insists that governments are not to bear the sword in vain. Military force exists to punish evil. And Islamic terror in Nigeria is evil. It had to be confronted. And it must still be confronted repeatedly until that evil is eradicated. Trump and Tinubu have not eradicated this evil, but they have at least confronted it head-on.

Again, the confrontation of evil by Trump and Tinubu was not drastic enough to stop ISIS (or Boko Haram, ISWAP, etc.). Still, it was enough of an action to finally offer hope to Christians and other minorities in Nigeria.

To state the matter differently, this confrontation was not an appeasement. The lesson of Munich in 1938 still holds: Evil must be confronted and cannot be appeased.

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