Some even celebrated ‘mass killing’ and the president’s ‘resolve’ in attacking Islamic State targets
Some even celebrated ‘mass killing’ and the president’s ‘resolve’ in attacking Islamic State targets
The US’s Christmas Day strikes against Islamic State targets in Nigeria have been met with praise by Donald Trump supporters who for months had been agitating for the president to respond forcefully to the killings of Christians in the country.
“I can’t think of a better way to celebrate Christmas than by avenging the death of Christians through the justified mass killing of Islamic terrorists,” the far-right political activist Laura Loomer posted on X. “You’ve got to love it! Death to all Islamic terrorists! Thank you.”
Loomer said she had been informed by the US defense department – which the Trump administration calls the war department – that the American cruise missile strikes carried out with the Nigerian government’s cooperation had been “a direct response to [IS] jihadi terrorists killing Christians in Nigeria”.
The US House member Randy Fine, a Florida Republican who in November supported a congressional resolution calling for Nigeria to be designated a “country of particular concern” due to its religious violence, described Thursday’s strikes as an “amazing Christmas present!”
“With Muslim terrorists attacking Christians in Nigeria, Syria, and even Europe – simply for refusing to submit to Islam – the president is showing that we will no longer tolerate these barbarians,” Fine said on X, after suggesting earlier in December that “mainstream Muslims” should be “destroyed”.
The uniformity of the Republicans’ response comes in contrast to a campaign involving economic pressure as well as airstrikes on alleged drug boats that the Trump administration is waging on Venezuela to oust its president, Nicolás Maduro.
