Nicki Minaj responded to a fan who criticized her for thanking President Donald Trump after he threatened military action against Nigeria over allegations that Christians in the West African nation were being “slaughtered.”
Trump, 79, took to Truth Social on Saturday to issue the threat to the Nigerian government, claiming that Christianity was “facing an existential threat” in the West African nation.
“Radical Islamists are responsible for this mass slaughter,” he alleged. “I am hereby making Nigeria a ‘COUNTRY OF PARTICULAR CONCERN’ – But that is the least of it. When Christians, or any such group, is slaughtered like is happening in Nigeria (3,100 versus 4,476 Worldwide), something must be done!”
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Trump, in his post, also wrote that 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!” he added.
Trump similarly issued another threat on the same social media platform, stating that the United States will “immediately stop all aid and assistance to Nigeria” if the West African nation’s government “continues to allow the killing of Christians.”
Besides that, Trump also said that the United States “may very well go into the now disgraced country, ‘guns blazing,’ to completely wipe out the Islamic Terrorists who are committing these horrible atrocities.”
He continued: “I am hereby instructing our Department of War to prepare for possible action. If we attack, it will be fast, vicious, and sweet.”
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Minaj, 42, shared a screenshot of one of Trump’s posts on X and thanked the president and his team for taking the alleged issue “seriously.”
“Reading this made me feel a deep sense of gratitude. We live in a country where we can freely worship God,” the rapper, born Onika Tanya Maraj, wrote. “No group should ever be persecuted for practicing their religion. We don’t have to share the same beliefs in order for us to respect each other. Numerous countries all around the world are being affected by this horror & it’s dangerous to pretend we don’t notice.”
She added: “Thank you to The President & his team for taking this seriously. God bless every persecuted Christian. Let’s remember to lift them up in prayer.”
Minaj’s comments, however, did not sit well with a section of her fans, with one of them telling her that “we live in a country that wants to weaponize religion so YOUR GAY FANS can be pushed into a corner and silenced.”
But the Anaconda rapper, in a since-deleted post, responded: “Imagine hearing that Christians are being MURDERED & making it about you being gay,” The Independent reported.
She added: “When my home was swatted multiple times with my innocent toddler inside (with maybe 20 officers with guns drawn pointed at our home due to political corruption), you being gay couldn’t save me. Expecting someone to stay oppressed, abused, targeted, harassed & CONSISTENTLY ignored by public figures who were supposed to be helping them says more about you than it does anyone else.”
Nigeria’s population stands at over 230 million, and the two main religions in the West African nation are Christianity and Islam. Despite Trump’s allegations, experts and analysts say that both Christians and Muslims are at the receiving end when it comes to brutal attacks from radical Islamists, CNN reported.
“The characterisation of Nigeria as religiously intolerant does not reflect our national reality, nor does it take into consideration the consistent and sincere efforts of the government to safeguard freedom of religion and beliefs for all Nigerians,” Nigeria’s president, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, said in a statement on Sunday.
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