As Christians come under increasing siege in Nigeria, the Trump administration is responding as President Joe Biden’s team never did on Nagorno-Karabakh. On December 3, 2025, Secretary of State Marco Rubio tweeted, “The United States is taking decisive action in response to the atrocities and violence against Christians in Nigeria and around the world. The @StateDept will restrict U.S. visas for those who knowingly direct, authorize, fund, support, or carry out violations of religious freedom. This visa policy applies to Nigeria and other governments or individuals that persecute people for their religious beliefs.”
Rubio’s tweet marks a reversal of US policy on Nigeria. Nigeria is home to the world’s sixth largest Christian population, although for decades Nigerian Islamists have besieged the community. The Nigerian government starved more than two million Christians to death during the 1967-1970 Biafra Genocide and then rewarded Muhammadu Buhari, one of its perpetrators by propelling him to the presidency twice. While Nigeria points to the religious protections granted in its constitution, 12 northern states have now imposed Islamic law on their subjects. As Fulani militiamen stormed Christian villages and slaughtered their inhabitants, Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s dismissed the religious angle, blaming the movement of the Islamist tribesmen on climate change. Climate change, however, did not charter their buses; Nigerian officials did.
As Nigeria ramped up its slaughter of Christians, Blinken announced Nigeria’s removal from the religious freedom watch list. Months later, the White House posted a photograph of Biden and Buhari laughing and joking as they watched the 2022 FIFA World Cup together. Biden and Blinken sought to give Nigeria a pass on religious repression in the hope that kind words and relaxed diplomacy might lead to warm relations; neither president nor secretary understood that ideology motivated Nigeria’s Islamists and that they brokered no compromise.
Today, at least, these Islamists cannot enter the United States or in many cases access its financial system. Nigeria, however, is hardly the only country to repress its Christians and seek to drive them into exile.
Azerbaijan uses its caviar diplomacy to buy allies in Congress, universities, think tanks, and newspapers. They repeat talking points about Azerbaijan’s religious tolerance. Shortly after Azerbaijan ethnically cleansed Nagorno-Karabakh, for example, Mordechai Kedar took to the Jerusalem Post to describe Azerbaijan as “a peace-loving country…which promotes religious tolerance and pluralism for all of its citizens.” After a brief trip to Azerbaijan, Los Angeles Rabbi David Wolpe related how one interlocutor hoped that “the cooperation of Christians, Muslims, Jews and other traditions in Azerbaijan might serve as a model for other nations.” Though later pardoned by President Donald Trump, a US court convicted Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-Texas) of taking bribes in exchange for parroting Azerbaijani talking points.
In reality, there is little religious freedom in Azerbaijan. The regime trots out Jewish and Christian leaders, but these are little more than living museum exhibits who follow a script under threat of their or their families’ lives.
