Somewhere between New York’s Studio 54 disco and the White House, Donald Trump became infused by militant Christianity. At the same time, he also seems to have been imbued by the most extreme, far-right Zionism.
Politics do odd things. Trump may espouse a lot of oddball causes, but he’s no fool. He lives and breathes politics.
This week’s political rabbit out of the hat is, of all places, Nigeria, Africa’s most populous nations, with 232 million rambunctious people. As with many of today’s world problems, Nigeria was a creation of British imperialism. The British took a very large swathe of West Africa comprising all sorts of peoples, religions and tribes, drew a line around its borders, and called it Nigeria.
Northern Nigeria, which abuts the Sahara, was predominantly Muslim. Southern Nigeria, where vast stores of oil were eventually discovered, became largely Christian thanks to intense British missionary activity. The two huge communities occasionally squabble or fight, most often over land disputes, cattle rusting and kidnapping of women.
This behavior is common all over West and Southern Africa. Its victims number less than black people killed each year in Chicago’s endemic urban violence.
It’s nonsense to say Nigeria is racked by anti-Christian violence. The tribal conflict that it suffers is small-time violence whose numbers and severity have long been played up by fundamentalist Christians in the United States who preach holy war against Muslims everywhere. Most of these militant Christian fundamentalists look at Trump as a second savior. He has carefully cultivated this image.
The Christian far right is a key component of Trump’s supporters. The late far-right Christian advocate, Charlie Kirk, who was assassinated was a key spokesman for Trump’s Christian moment. The Christian Right has long been focused on Africa, raising funds for anti-Islamic causes. The most notable were efforts to break the regions of Darfur from Sudan in 2018, and the current conflict in the same region as Sudan is being pulled apart.
Most impressive was US support in 2011 for secessionist, primarily Christian South Sudan – another oil rich area. South Sudan broke away with US help from Sudan, then proceeded to fall into tribal chaos and banditry. Christian groups in America had urged on this dismemberment of Sudan and even, in some cases, supplied arms to the south Sudanese rebels.
Many fundamentalist Christian voters get much of their world news from the propaganda mill at Fox News or church-issued news bulletins. Many approve Trump’s proposal that US troops be sent to Nigeria to succor Christians without being able to locate Nigeria on a map. All this fits in with efforts by the Trump administration to vilify Muslims in general or ban them from the US.
Let’s hope the 82nd Airborne Division is not about to be dropped onto Abuja Nigeria on some sort of later-day Crusader mission to please the folks in Biloxi, Mississippi. Trump vowed no more Third World wars (China excepted) and now he’s stepping right into one of totally unpredictable outcome and no sense whatsoever. Some in the White House are urging Trump to conquer all the world’s oil producers. He wants to be King of Oil on top of king of most everything else.
American has no interest in Nigeria. Nigeria has no interest in the United States, save as a lush hunting ground for its skilled scam artists. Trump is no Christian Crusader.
Copyright Eric S. Margolis 2025