The President of the United States, Donald Trump, has opened up on the reason he ordered an airstrike on Sokoto State, Nigeria on Christmas Day.
Speaking on Thursday while addressing guests at the National Prayer Breakfast in Washington, D.C., Trump stated that he decided to order the airstrike on Christmas Day so it would leave an impact.
According to the U.S. president, the strikes were ordered to “decimate the ISIS terrorists who have been slaughtering Christians in that country by the thousands.”
He said, “I ordered powerful air strikes to decimate the ISIS terrorists who have been slaughtering Christians in that country by the thousands. It’s not even believable.
“We hit them so hard they still don’t know what the hell happened. And we were going to do it on a different day. I said no, do it on Christmas. So they understand it.
“Remember, Christmas was when I ran in 2015. When I announced, I said we’re going to bring back Christmas because the word Christmas was almost gone and people didn’t use Christmas anymore.”
Trump stated that the strike was carried out in collaboration with the Nigerian government.
He said, “On Christmas Day, in close coordination with the government of Nigeria, we worked with them, but they’ve got to get tougher.
“We brought back the word Christmas. They didn’t want to use it, and we’re using it again.”
He added that he gave specific instructions to ensure the operation took place on Christmas Day.
“I specifically told Pete, I said hit them on Christmas Day, not earlier and not later. And man, did he hit them. So then we hit them again recently. We hit them again pretty hard,” Trump said.