President Donald Trump on Saturday announced the U.S. will immediately stop all aid and assistance to Nigeria if its government continues to allow the killing of Christians, and may even go into the country “guns-a-blazing” to “completely wipe out the Islamic terrorists” responsible.

“I am hereby instructing our Department of War to prepare for possible action,” Trump wrote in a Truth Social post. “If we attack, it will be fast, vicious, and sweet, just like the terrorist thugs attack our CHERISHED Christians! WARNING: THE NIGERIAN GOVERNMENT BETTER MOVE FAST!”

The post comes after the president on Friday designated Nigeria as a “country of particular concern,” citing the widespread killings of Christians.

I’M A CHRISTIAN FROM NIGER. DON’T IGNORE HORRIFYING ATTACKS ON AFRICAN CHRISTIANS

“Christianity is facing an existential threat in Nigeria,” Trump posted to Truth Social Friday. “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.”

He said Rep. Riley Moore, R-W. Va., Rep. Tom Cole, R-Okla., and members of the House Appropriations Committee were directed to look into the reports and present findings to him at a later date.

“The United States cannot stand by while such atrocities are happening in Nigeria, and numerous other Countries,” Trump wrote. “We stand ready, willing, and able to save our Great Christian population around the World!”

WHITE HOUSE RESPONDS TO SURGE IN CHRISTIAN PERSECUTION CRISIS ACROSS SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA

Pope Leo XIV condemned the killings of up to 200 people in Yelewata community in Nigeria. (Associated Press)

The persecution of Christians in Nigeria has reached crisis levels, as Islamist militants burn down villages, massacre worshipers and displace thousands across the north and central regions.

Attackers in June invaded a bishop’s village days after he testified before Congress, killing more than twenty people.

Other assaults in Plateau and Benue states have left hundreds dead, with survivors describing militants shouting “Allahu Akbar” as they burned churches and homes.

Members of St Leo Catholic Church hold a procession to mark Palm Sunday in Ikeja, Lagos, Nigeria, on April 13, 2025.  (Adekunle Ajayi/Getty Images)

International watchdog group Open Doors reported nearly 70% of Christians killed for their faith last year were in Nigeria.

Groups like Boko Haram, Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) and Fulani militants are blamed for most attacks, often targeting Christian farmers. Rights groups estimate 4,000–8,000 Christian deaths annually.

Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, told Fox News Digital 50,000 Christians have been killed and 20,000 Christian schools and churches destroyed in the country since 2009, calling it “a crisis of religious genocide.”

Mark Walker, Trump’s ambassador-designate for International Religious Freedom, urged stronger U.S. pressure on Nigeria’s government, calling the violence a humanitarian crisis. He also pledged to work with Secretary of State Marco Rubio to strengthen U.S. advocacy.

I WAS KIDNAPPED BY BOKO HARAM, AND SURVIVED. NO THANKS TO THE WEST’S SILENCE

The White House and global leaders have condemned the violence, warning it could spread across Africa. However, Nigerian officials have denied systematic persecution, calling U.S. reports “misleading.”

Hours before Trump’s threat Saturday, Nigerian President Bola Ahmed Tinubu posted a statement on X, noting Nigeria “stands firmly” as a democracy governed by constitutional guarantees of religious liberty.

“Since 2023, our administration has maintained an open and active engagement with Christian and Muslim leaders alike and continues to address security challenges which affect citizens across faiths and regions,” Tinubu wrote in the statement. “The characterization of Nigeria as religiously intolerant does not reflect our national reality, nor does it take into consideration the consistent and sincere efforts of the government to safeguard freedom of religion and beliefs for all Nigerians. Religious freedom and tolerance have been a core tenet of our collective identity and shall always remain so.”

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“Nigeria opposes religious persecution and does not encourage it,” he continued. “Nigeria is a country with constitutional guarantees to protect citizens of all faiths. Our administration is committed to working with the United States government and the international community to deepen understanding and cooperation on protection of communities of all faiths.”

Fox News Digital’s Efrat Lachter and Sophia Compton contributed to this report.

Two federal judges told the U.S. Department of Agriculture in separate rulings Friday that it must begin using billions of dollars in contingency funding to provide federal food assistance to poor American families despite the federal shutdown, but gave the agency until Monday to decide how to do so.

Both Obama-appointed judges rejected Trump administration arguments that more than $5 billion in USDA contingency funds could not legally be tapped to continue Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits for nearly 42 million people — about 1 in 8 Americans — while the federal government remains closed. But both also left unclear how exactly the relief should be provided, or when it will arrive for millions of families set to lose benefits starting Saturday.

The two rulings came almost simultaneously Friday.

In Massachusetts, U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani stopped short of granting California and a coalition of 24 other Democrat-led states a temporary restraining order they had requested. But she ruled that the states were likely to succeed in their arguments that the USDA’s total shutoff of SNAP benefits — despite having billions in emergency contingency funds on hand — was unlawful.

Talwani gave USDA until Monday to tell her whether they would authorize “only reduced SNAP benefits” using the contingency funding — which would not cover the total $8.5 billion to $9 billion needed for all November benefits, according to the USDA — or would authorize “full SNAP benefits using both the Contingency Funds and additional available funds.”

Separately, in Rhode Island, U.S. District Judge John McConnell granted a temporary restraining order requested by nonprofit organizations, ruling from the bench that SNAP must be funded with at least the contingency funds “as soon as possible,” and requesting an update on progress by Monday.

California Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta — whose office helped bring the states’ lawsuit — praised the decisions of the two courts, saying SNAP benefits “provide an essential hunger safety net” to 5.5 million Californians. “Simply put, the stakes could not be higher.”

Skye Perryman, president and chief executive of Democracy Forward, which represented the nonprofit groups, said the ruling in that case “affirms what both the law and basic decency require” and “protects millions of families, seniors, and veterans from being used as leverage in a political fight.”

It was not clear if the administration would appeal the rulings. President Trump wrote in a post to his Truth Social platform that he does not want Americans to go hungry and that he had instructed the government’s lawyers “to ask the Court to clarify how we can legally fund SNAP as soon as possible,” as it would be his “HONOR” to provide the funding with “appropriate legal direction by the Court.”

“It is already delayed enough due to the Democrats keeping the Government closed through the monthly payment date and, even if we get immediate guidance, it will unfortunately be delayed while States get the money out,” Trump wrote, before urging SNAP recipients to call Democrats in Congress and demand they end the shutdown.

While the orders were a win for states and the nation’s SNAP recipients, they do not mean that all those recipients will be spared a lapse in their food aid, state officials stressed. State and local food banks continued scrambling to prepare for a deluge of need starting Saturday.

Asked Thursday if a ruling in the states’ favor would mean SNAP funds would be immediately loaded onto CalFresh and other benefits cards, Bonta said “the answer is no, unfortunately.”

“Our best estimates are that [SNAP benefit] cards could be loaded and used in about a week,” he said, calling that lag “problematic.”

“There could be about a week where people are hungry and need food,” he said. For new applicants to the program, he said, it could take even longer.

The rulings came as the now monthlong shutdown continued Friday with no immediate end in sight.

They also came after Trump called Thursday for the Senate to end the shutdown by first ending the filibuster, a longstanding rule that requires 60 votes to overcome objections to legislation. The rule has traditionally been favored by lawmakers as a means of blocking particularly partisan measures, and is currently being used by Democrats to resist the will of the current 53-seat Republican majority.

Los Angeles Regional Food Bank Chief Executive Michael Flood, standing alongside Bonta as members of the California National Guard worked behind them stuffing food boxes Thursday, said his organization was preparing for massive weekend lines, similar to those seen during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“This is a disaster type of situation,” Flood said.

“5.5 million Californians, 1.5 million children and adults in L.A. County alone, will be left high and dry — illegally so, unnecessarily so, in a way that is morally bankrupt,” Bonta said.

Bonta blamed the shutdown on Trump and his administration, and said the USDA broke the law by not tapping its contingency funds to continue payments.

Bonta said SNAP benefits have never been disrupted during previous federal government shutdowns, and should never have been disrupted during this shutdown, either.

“That was avoidable,” he said. “Trump created this problem.”

The Trump administration has blamed the shutdown and the looming disruption to SNAP benefits entirely on Democrats in Congress, who have blocked short-term spending measures to restart the government and fund SNAP. Democrats are holding out to pressure Republicans into rescinding massive cuts to subsidies that help millions of Americans afford health insurance.

Abigail Jackson, a White House spokesperson, previously told The Times that Democrats should be the ones getting asked “when the shutdown will end,” because “they are the ones who have decided to shut down the government so they can use working Americans and SNAP benefits as ‘leverage’ to pursue their radical left wing agenda.”

“Americans are suffering because of Democrats,” Jackson said.

In their opposition to the states’ request for a temporary restraining order requiring the disbursement of funds, attorneys for the USDA argued that using emergency funds to cover November SNAP benefits would deplete funds meant to provide “critical support in the event of natural disasters and other uncontrollable catastrophes,” and could actually cause more disruption to benefits down the line.

They wrote that SNAP requires between $8.5 billion and $9 billion each month, and the USDA’s contingency fund has only about $5.25 billion, meaning it could not fully fund November benefits even if it did release contingency funding. Meanwhile, “a partial payment has never been made — and for good reason,” because it would force every state to recalculate benefits for recipients and then recalibrate their systems to provide the new amounts, they wrote.

That “would take weeks, if it can be done at all,” and would then have to be undone in order to issue December benefits at normal levels, assuming the shutdown would have lifted by then, they wrote.

Simply pausing the benefits to immediately be reissued whenever the shutdown ends is the smarter and less disruptive course of action, they argued.

In addition to suing the administration, California and its leaders have been rushing to ensure that hungry families have something to eat in coming days. Gov. Gavin Newsom directed $80 million to food banks to stock up on provisions, and activated the National Guard to help package food for those who need it.

Counties have also been working to offset the need, including by directing additional funding to food banks and other resource centers and asking partners in the private sector to assist.

Dozens of organizations in California have written to Newsom calling on him to use state funds to fully cover the missing federal benefits, in order to prevent “a crisis of unthinkable magnitude,” but Newsom has suggested that is not possible given the scale of funding withheld.

SNAP served about 41.7 million people in 2024, at an annual cost of nearly $100 billion, according to the USDA. Children and older people accounted for more than 63% of California recipients.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.