Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told a Cabinet meeting Tuesday that President Donald Trump directed the Department of War roughly a year ago to protect Christians in Nigeria who were being slaughtered by ISIS, and that the military has since killed the terror group's second-in-command in the country along with hundreds of its fighters.
The disclosure, made during what Hegseth described as a largely overlooked campaign against ISIS in West Africa, puts hard numbers behind a policy Trump set in motion after learning of the scale of anti-Christian violence in Nigeria. The results, as Hegseth laid them out, amount to one of the most aggressive U.S. counterterrorism operations on the African continent in years.
Hegseth framed the operation as a direct presidential order. As Breitbart reported, the Defense Secretary told fellow Cabinet members that Trump heard the plight of Nigerian Christians and responded with a clear instruction:
"Maybe a year ago he heard the call of Nigerian Christians who were being targeted and killed by ISIS in Nigeria, and he said, 'Pete, I want the War Department to focus on ensuring that we do everything we can to protect those Christians.'"
What followed was a months-long effort to build partnerships and deploy assets and intelligence resources into the region. Hegseth acknowledged the work happened quietly.
"Partnerships like that can take time behind the scenes, but he never wavered on it," Hegseth said.
The centerpiece of the campaign was the elimination of Abu-Bilal al-Minuki, whom the Washington Examiner identified as ISIS's second-in-command globally. Al-Minuki was killed in a joint operation with Nigeria, approved by both Trump and Nigerian President Tinubu. Hegseth confirmed al-Minuki's associates were also killed in the strike.
The Defense Secretary was blunt about the reasoning. "We hunted al-Minuki for months because he was killing Christians. In turn, we killed him, and his entire posse," Hegseth said.
The operation Hegseth described at the Cabinet meeting did not materialize overnight. It traces back to a dramatic escalation on December 25, 2025, when the Department of War executed airstrikes against ISIS positions in Nigeria on Christmas night. The strikes targeted ISIS fighters in Sokoto state and were coordinated with the Nigerian government.
Hegseth took to social media that evening to warn of further action. "The President was clear last month: the killing of innocent Christians in Nigeria (and elsewhere) must end," he wrote. "The @DeptofWar is always ready, so ISIS found out tonight, on Christmas. More to come..."
That promise of "more to come" appears to have been fulfilled. Over the month preceding the Cabinet meeting, Hegseth told officials, the military killed hundreds of ISIS members who had been targeting and killing Christians. The intelligence gathered from the al-Minuki operation enabled the broader campaign.
Hegseth has drawn both praise and scrutiny during his tenure atop the Pentagon. He forced Army Chief of Staff Randy George into immediate retirement as part of a sweeping Pentagon overhaul, a move that signaled his willingness to shake up the military's senior ranks.
Hegseth did not limit his remarks to the humanitarian dimension. He told the Cabinet that al-Minuki was "most responsible for killing Christians and trying to target the U.S. homeland." The implication was clear: the Nigeria operation served American security interests, not just the defense of persecuted religious minorities abroad.
"The removal of him and other ISIS personnel makes Americans safer by further degrading ISIS's ability to plan and carry out attacks."
That framing, linking the protection of Nigerian Christians to direct threats against the United States, distinguishes this operation from purely humanitarian interventions. It positions the campaign as a core national security mission, not foreign charity.
The New York Post reported that the Christmas Day strikes killed multiple ISIS terrorists in Sokoto state, confirming the Nigerian government's cooperation in the campaign. The joint nature of the operation suggests a durable security partnership that extends beyond any single strike.
Hegseth has also been active on the domestic political front, recently stumping for a Trump-backed challenger in a Kentucky congressional primary, a sign of his expanding influence beyond the Pentagon's walls.
One of the sharpest lines in Hegseth's Cabinet remarks was aimed squarely at the press. He noted the near-total absence of coverage for the Nigeria campaign, a campaign that killed a top global ISIS leader and hundreds of fighters.
"Over the last month, and there hasn't been much coverage of this, we killed ISIS' number two in Nigeria, who is most responsible for killing Christians and trying to target the U.S. homeland, and have since, because of the intel we gathered, killed hundreds of ISIS members who were targeting and killing Christians in Nigeria, creating a whole new opportunity there."
The observation lands harder when you consider what does dominate the news cycle. The media apparatus that can produce wall-to-wall coverage of a Pentagon personnel dispute somehow missed a sustained counterterrorism campaign that eliminated a global ISIS deputy and dismantled a network responsible for mass murder of Christians.
Hegseth also reported that the Department of War has hit "historic recruitment rates" for the second consecutive year, beating the prior year's pace. He credited Trump's investments in the department and said the American public is responding. No specific recruitment numbers were provided, but the claim of back-to-back record years, if accurate, would mark a sharp reversal from the recruiting crisis that plagued the military in recent years.
The Defense Secretary's tenure has not been without friction. He accused Sen. Mark Kelly of disclosing classified briefing details, prompting a Pentagon legal review, one of several confrontations that have marked his time leading the department.
Hegseth's account, while striking, leaves significant gaps. He did not name the specific partnerships or assets deployed. He did not quantify how many Nigerian Christians have been killed by ISIS or describe the scale of the threat in precise terms. The "whole new opportunity" he referenced in Nigeria went unexplained.
The specific operational details, where exactly the strikes occurred beyond Sokoto state, what platforms were used, how the intelligence chain unfolded after al-Minuki's death, remain classified or undisclosed. That is not unusual for active counterterrorism operations, but it means the public is relying on Hegseth's word and the fragmentary reporting that has emerged.
Nor has there been any independent accounting of civilian casualties or collateral damage from the strikes. Those questions will inevitably arise, and the administration would be wise to get ahead of them.
Hegseth has shown he is not shy about making controversial calls. He lifted the suspension of Army pilots involved in a separate incident, overturning a previous military decision in a move that drew both applause and criticism.
Nigeria is home to one of the largest Christian populations in Africa. ISIS-affiliated groups, particularly the Islamic State West Africa Province, have waged a grinding campaign of violence against Christian communities for years. The attacks, bombings, kidnappings, village raids, have killed thousands and displaced far more. International attention has been sporadic at best.
The Trump administration's decision to treat this as a military priority, rather than a diplomatic talking point, represents a meaningful shift. Previous administrations expressed concern. This one dropped ordnance.
Hegseth summed up the broader posture in his closing remarks at the Cabinet meeting: "There's a lot of things we do that the media pays attention to, and a lot of things the President empowers the department to do on behalf of the American people that he deserves great credit for."
Whether the media decides to pay attention to this one may say more about the press than about the policy. A global ISIS leader is dead. Hundreds of his fighters are dead. Nigerian Christians have a measure of relief they did not have a year ago. And the administration that made it happen had to announce it themselves because nobody else bothered to report it.
That tells you everything about whose priorities are straight, and whose aren't.
