FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
December 25, 2025
Contact: press@defensepriorities.org
WASHINGTON, DC—This evening, President Trump announced that the U.S. carried out strikes against ISIS targets in Nigeria. Jennifer Kavanagh, Director of Military Analysis at Defense Priorities, issued the following statement in response:
“The U.S. action taken in Nigeria while Americans celebrated the Christmas holiday is an unnecessary and unjustified use of U.S. military force that violates Mr. Trump’s promises to his supporters to put American interests first and avoid risky and wasteful military campaigns abroad.
“Airstrikes in Nigeria will not make Americans safer, no matter the target. There are no real U.S. interests at stake in Nigeria, a country that is an ocean and over 5,000 miles away. The country is home to a long-running insurgency, but violence and unrest in Nigeria pose no threat to the U.S. homeland or national security interests abroad. Furthermore, despite Mr. Trump’s claims, there is no evidence that Christians are targeted by Nigeria’s extremist groups at a rate higher than any other religious or ethnic group in the country. Killings of civilians, to the extent they occur, are indiscriminate.
“The United States has been conducting strikes on ISIS and other terrorist group targets in Africa now for over two decades and the number and power of militant groups on the continent has only increased. The whack-a-mole strategy is ineffective at controlling insurgencies or eliminating terrorist groups. It also needlessly expends scarce U.S. resources and does so at a time when Americans are concerned about economic challenges at home.
“Chasing terrorist groups around the globe is the opposite of the ‘America First’ foreign policy voters expected when they returned Mr. Trump to the White House. To keep his commitment, he must make the attack in Nigeria a one-off.”
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