{"id":47399,"date":"2025-11-03T10:44:46","date_gmt":"2025-11-03T15:44:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/?p=47399"},"modified":"2025-11-03T10:44:46","modified_gmt":"2025-11-03T15:44:46","slug":"nicki-minaj-thanks-trump-for-speaking-out-on-christian-persecution-in-nigeria","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2025\/11\/nicki-minaj-thanks-trump-for-speaking-out-on-christian-persecution-in-nigeria.html","title":{"rendered":"Nicki Minaj Thanks Trump For Speaking Out on Christian Persecution in Nigeria"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_47402\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-47402\" style=\"width: 1200px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/87\/2025\/11\/Trump-Minaj_credit-Left-The-White-House-Right-Debby-Wong-Shutterstock.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-47402\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/87\/2025\/11\/Trump-Minaj_credit-Left-The-White-House-Right-Debby-Wong-Shutterstock.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1200\" height=\"900\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-47402\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Left: The White House | Right: Debby Wong \/ Shutterstock.com<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Rap superstar Nicki Minaj is publicly thanking President Donald Trump for drawing attention to the growing persecution of Christians in Nigeria \u2014 a crisis that human rights advocates have described as one of the deadliest for believers anywhere in the world.<\/p>\n<p>Trump posted a <a href=\"https:\/\/truthsocial.com\/@realDonaldTrump\/posts\/115470116607441456\">statement<\/a> on Truth Social condemning the violence against Christians in Nigeria, where thousands have been killed in recent years by extremist groups. &#8220;Christianity is facing an existential threat in Nigeria. Thousands of Christians are being killed. Radical Islamists are responsible for this mass slaughter,&#8221; Trump wrote. &#8220;The United States cannot stand by while such atrocities are happening in Nigeria and numerous other countries. We stand ready, willing, and able to save our great Christian population around the world!&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Minaj, who has often <a href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/celebrity-faith-database\/m\/nicki-minaj.aspx\">spoken about her faith<\/a> and credits God for her success, <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/NICKIMINAJ\/status\/1984566555460485280\">responded<\/a> with a message of appreciation. &#8220;Reading this made me feel a deep sense of gratitude,&#8221; she wrote. &#8220;We live in a country where we can freely worship God. No group should ever be persecuted for practicing their religion. We don&#8217;t have to share the same beliefs in order for us to respect each other.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>She went on to thank the president and his team &#8220;for taking this seriously,&#8221; adding, &#8220;God bless every persecuted Christian. Let&#8217;s remember to lift them up in prayer.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Mike Waltz thanked Minaj for her words, saying, &#8220;We cannot allow this to continue. Every brother and sister of Christ must band together and say, &#8216;Enough!'&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The situation for Christians in Nigeria has deteriorated in recent years, with Islamist militias and extremist groups such as Boko Haram and ISWAP attacking villages, burning churches, and killing worshippers during Sunday services. Tens of thousands have been displaced, and many families live in refugee camps after their homes were destroyed.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Even being conservative, it&#8217;s probably 4,000 to 8,000 Christians killed annually,&#8221; said Mark Walker, Trump&#8217;s ambassador-designate for International Religious Freedom, in an interview with Fox News Digital. &#8220;This has been going on for years \u2014 from ISWAP to Islamist Fulani ethnic militias \u2014 and the Nigerian government has to be much more proactive.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>In his Truth Social post, Trump announced that he had directed members of Congress, including Rep. Riley Moore of West Virginia and Rep. Tom Cole of Oklahoma, to investigate the situation and report their findings. He also said he would move to designate Nigeria once again as a &#8220;country of particular concern,&#8221; a classification used by the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom for nations that tolerate or engage in &#8220;systematic, ongoing, and egregious violations of religious freedom.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Nigeria is the most dangerous nation on Earth to follow Christ,&#8221; the House Appropriations Committee said in a follow-up statement. &#8220;For simply practicing their faith, Christians are actively being kidnapped, attacked and slaughtered. With President Trump announcing he will be redesignating Nigeria as a Country of Particular Concern, the United States is making clear in one resolute voice: Religious persecution will not be tolerated.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The committee added that once the current government shutdown is resolved, it plans to move forward with appropriations measures to address the crisis. &#8220;We know you&#8217;ll be ready at your desk with a pen in hand,&#8221; the statement concluded.<\/p>\n<p>While Minaj is best known for her chart-topping hits, her public acknowledgment of the crisis in Nigeria drew praise from Christian fans who said her words helped bring awareness to an issue that has received too little attention. As one fan commented under her post, &#8220;Using your platform for the persecuted is what faith in action looks like.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Rap superstar Nicki Minaj is publicly thanking President Donald Trump for drawing attention to the growing persecution of Christians in Nigeria \u2014 a crisis that human rights advocates have described as one of the deadliest for believers anywhere in the world. Trump posted a statement on Truth Social condemning the violence against Christians in Nigeria,&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":516,"featured_media":47402,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-47399","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-television"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Nicki Minaj Thanks Trump For Speaking Out on Christian Persecution in Nigeria<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Nicki Minaj thanks Trump for addressing Christian persecution in Nigeria, saying no one should be attacked for their faith.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" 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