Rep. Mike Turner on Sunday defended the White House’s decision to launch airstrikes against ISIS targets in Nigeria on Christmas Day.
In an interview with ABC’s “This Week,” the Ohio Republican declined to say if the U.S. was in a military conflict with Nigeria but said the strikes were a “continuation” of conflict with ISIS.
“We’re, of course, seeing that ISIS around the world has not been defeated but will continue to be a target and something that … with our allies, we’re going to have to continue to respond to, or they’re going to continue to be a threat,” said Turner, who serves on the House Armed Services Committee.
Turner added that the strikes were undertaken with the cooperation of the Nigerian government, which the Pentagon previously confirmed to POLITICO.
Despite host Jonathan Karl remarking that the recent strikes differ from President Donald Trump’s military action in his first term, Turner said Trump has been taking a “linear” path to foreign policy.
“If you take the linear aspects of the foreign policy of the first term into the second term with respect to the policy of ISIS, it’s very consistent, both in Iraq in defeating ISIS and then in Syria and then, of course, here in Nigeria,” Turner said.
Trump announced in a post on Truth Social on Thursday that he had ordered a “powerful and deadly” strike on Islamic State terrorists in Nigeria. The strikes were part of the president’s ongoing focus in the region where he says Christians are being persecuted.
“I have previously warned these Terrorists that if they did not stop the slaughtering of Christians, there would be hell to pay, and tonight, there was,” Trump said in his post. “The Department of War executed numerous perfect strikes, as only the United States is capable of doing.”
Nigeria has denied that Christians are being persecuted in the region, but Trump and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth warned that the nation may face more strikes if the persecution does not stop.
“The President was clear last month: the killing of innocent Christians in Nigeria (and elsewhere) must end,” Hegseth wrote on X. “The @DeptofWar is always ready, so ISIS found out tonight — on Christmas. More to come…”
