Washington Post praises Trump’s Nigeria ISIS strikes targeting militants
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The Washington Post editorial board said the Trump administration’s military strikes against ISIS targets in Nigeria were a “welcome change” and that the president would be “wise to remain engaged” in the region.
In a Saturday editorial, the Post on Thursday praised President Donald Trump’s “righteous strikes” against the Islamic State branch in Nigeria’s Sahel province, where Christians and Christian institutions have been attacked in recent months.
“A sizable cohort of President Donald Trump’s advisers want the United States to abandon its extensive overseas engagements and instead become a regional power focused on the Western Hemisphere. The president’s righteous strike against Islamic State targets in Nigeria is a reminder that America is capable of much more,” the editorial board argued.
On Thursday, Trump posted on Truth Social announcing that the U.S. military had launched airstrikes in northwest Nigeria on Christmas night, targeting ISIS militants he accused of killing Christians, calling the operation decisive and warning that more attacks would follow if the violence continued.
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At least 51 Christians were killed in an attack in Nigeria’s Plateau State in April 2025. (Reuters)
“Tonight, under my direction as Commander in Chief, the United States launched a powerful and deadly strike against ISIS terrorists in northwest Nigeria, who are brutally targeting and killing, primarily innocent Christians, at levels not seen in many years, if not centuries!” Trump wrote Thursday.
Although the Post supported the Trump administration’s intervention in the region, the outlet argued that “the question is whether this is a one-off move or the start of a more coherent policy.”
The editorial board said it understood “the desire to want to abandon the entire region” but explained why Trump should continue his efforts in the region, a part of the world that the Post said “has always been little more than an afterthought for the president.”
“The US strikes in Nigeria targeted the Islamic State branch in the Sahel province, which has clashed violently in recent years over territory with JNIM, an al-Qaeda affiliate currently trying to take control of Mali by blocking the entry of fuel into the capital Bamako,” the outlet reported. “If Mali falls, it will mark the first takeover of a country by an anti-Western Islamic terrorist group since the Taliban took over Afghanistan.”
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According to the Post, the Sahel region, which stretches from Mauritania to Chad, has become “the world’s largest epicenter of global terrorism” and where half of the world’s terrorism deaths occur.
The Washington Post praised President Donald Trump’s “righteous strikes” against ISIS targets in Nigeria. (Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)
After decades of war that pushed many terrorist groups out of the territories they once controlled in Iraq and Syria, these groups have “found fertile soil in West Africa,” the media outlet claims.
While welcoming the administration’s intervention in the region as a step in the right direction, the editorial board warned that without sustained support, these efforts could prove futile.
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As the Post reports, the United States once had a regional counterterrorism plan called the Trans-Saharan Counterterrorism Partnership, but a recent audit found the program to be “underfunded, leaderless and mostly ineffective.” The outlet added that the Pentagon is also considering merging African Command with European Command, which was separated in 2008.
This photo released by the Christian Association of Nigeria shows the dormitories of St. Mary’s Catholic Primary and Secondary School after gunmen abducted children and staff in the Papiri community in Nigeria, Friday, November 21, 2025. (Christian Association of Nigeria via AP)
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“Nigeria, a relatively wealthy country in the region, continues to struggle with insecurity on multiple fronts. The central government has failed to restore security. It is good that Abuja is willing to work closely with Washington to end the killing, and Trump would be wise to remain engaged,” the message concludes.
Greg Wehner of Fox News contributed to this report.
