Trump Admin Takes First Steps To Tackle ‘Religious Cleansing’

The Trump administration is putting its diplomatic weight behind a long-overdue reckoning with international religious abuse, starting in Nigeria.

According to announcements made this week, President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio have launched visa restrictions for individuals involved in religious oppression and designated Nigeria as a “country of particular concern,” opening the door for sanctions and intensified diplomatic pushes, as The Daily Caller reports.

This move follows disturbing reports of systematic violence targeting Nigerian Christians, with U.S. lawmakers and policy analysts now pointing to religiously-fueled atrocities—not vague communal squabbles—as the root cause.

Trump Seeks Accountability for Christian Persecution

President Trump has now formally called on the House Appropriations Committee to investigate the claims of persecution, tapping Rep. Riley Moore of West Virginia to assist in leading the inquiry. A recent roundtable session brought together religious liberty experts and foreign policy specialists who are crafting a response.

“Our brothers and sisters in Christ are being persecuted and slaughtered in Nigeria simply for professing their faith in our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ,” Moore said in clear, no-frills language that echoed the thoughts of many Americans who've watched the silence surrounding this crisis with growing concern.

While critics in the past have chalked up Nigerian bloodshed to local tensions, Florida Rep. Brian Mast dismissed that excuse, calling it a “targeted campaign of religious cleansing.”

Visa Bans Target Perpetrators of Human Rights Violations

Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced the implementation of targeted visa bans on Wednesday, signaling that violators of religious freedom won’t be able to stroll through U.S. immigration lines without scrutiny. Using a clause from the Immigration and Nationality Act, Rubio is leveraging legal tools to deny travel to individuals who promote, support, or carry out religiously motivated persecution.

Rubio’s approach emphasizes that a person’s actions abroad can and should have consequences when it comes to entering a nation founded on religious liberty. “The State Department will restrict U.S. visas for those who knowingly direct, authorize, fund, support, or carry out violations of religious freedom,” he stated.

This isn’t just a Nigeria-specific policy. The message is loud and clear: If you trample on faith-based freedom anywhere, don’t expect to waltz into America without facing consequences.

Experts Point to Islamist Militants Driving the Crisis

According to Ebenezer Obadare of the Council on Foreign Relations, the chaos in Nigeria is being fueled by an unchecked rise in Islamist militants, chief among them Boko Haram. “Boko Haram’s barbarous and implacable campaign to overthrow the Nigerian state and establish an Islamic caliphate in its stead is the source of Nigeria’s present discontents,” he emphasized.

Obadare also pushed for Washington to maintain pressure on Nigeria’s President Bola Tinubu to take action. He argued that no real solution is possible unless groups like Boko Haram are decisively dismantled and denied the legal, military, and ideological space to operate.

Critics of past U.S. foreign policy note that while plenty of attention was given to less pressing cultural issues, the killing and displacement of Christians in Nigeria seemed to go largely ignored until now.

Policy Shift Draws Inspiration From Real Victims

Senior ADF International counsel Sean Nelson added to the sense of urgency by detailing the raw reality of what is happening on the ground in Nigeria. Nelson described scenes of devastated villages, beheaded pastors, burned churches, and civilians living in fear under the rule of terror-friendly Shariah courts.

“I have visited with villages directly attacked by Fulani militants and witnessed the aftermath,” Nelson recounted. The names and alliances may vary, but the victims are often the same: defenseless Christians targeted for their beliefs while governments stand by.

It’s not just about responding to violence; it's about refusing to normalize the abnormal behavior of regimes—or non-state actors—who think religious minorities are fair game.

Bringing Accountability Back Into Foreign Policy

Rubio’s move may upset diplomats who prefer platitudes over pressure, but it restores accountability where it’s long been absent. By leveraging visa bans and diplomatic clout, the administration is signaling a return to foreign policy that puts human rights, rather than globalist optics, at the center.

Trump’s approach also reflects a break from milquetoast international organizations more concerned with buzzwords than bombs. Religious freedom isn’t just a campaign line—it's a foreign policy marker that the U.S. is still willing to defend.

And let’s be clear: defending the persecuted isn’t controversial. What’s controversial is doing nothing while churches burn and innocents die.