Latest / THE DAILY BRIEF / Trump immediately angered by Fox News segment, threatens action in Nigeria

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Trump immediately angered by Fox News segment, threatens action in Nigeria · THE DAILY BRIEF

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: President Trump threatens military action against another country, this time Nigeria, saying,
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: and I quote him, if we attack, it will be fast, vicious,
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  Speaker 1: and sweet. CNN is learning what sparked Trump's iire against Nigeria.
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  Speaker 1: It came down to a segment on Fox and Elena
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  Speaker 1: screen is outfront live from the White House and Elena,
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  Speaker 1: I'm pretty incredible that that would be the case.
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  Speaker 2: Here.
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  Speaker 1: What have you learned?
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, Well, what I was told Aaron from two sources
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  Speaker 2: who were familiar with how this all happened, was that
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  Speaker 2: the President was headed to Florida on Friday. He was
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  Speaker 2: watching Fox News on the big screen and essentially he
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  Speaker 2: saw this segment that Fox was doing on how Christians
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  Speaker 2: were being targeted by Islamic groups in Nigeria, and very
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  Speaker 2: quickly after that, one of the sources says, it was
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  Speaker 2: immediately that his heat. It sparked some anger in him
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  Speaker 2: and he began to inquire about it, asking his staff
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  Speaker 2: to be better read on it. But what was interesting
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  Speaker 2: was that shortly after he had touched down on Air
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  Speaker 2: Force One, he had just taken the Beast, his presidential
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  Speaker 2: motor case tomorrow. Lago is when you saw that first
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  Speaker 2: post from him and it read quote Christianity is facing
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  Speaker 2: an existential threat in Nigeria. Thousands of Christians are being killed.
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  Speaker 2: Radical Islamis are responsible for this mass slaughter. He went
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  Speaker 2: on to add that he wants to make Nigeria a
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  Speaker 2: quote country of particular concern. Now, what was interesting about
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  Speaker 2: this is, of course, for anyone who was paying attention
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  Speaker 2: to his true social over the weekend, this became a
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  Speaker 2: major focal point of hers on Saturday and Sunday as well.
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  Speaker 2: He talked about potential military action in the region, and
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  Speaker 2: he was also asked directly last night when he was
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  Speaker 2: flying back on Air Force One if that could mean
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  Speaker 2: potential US boots on the ground or strikes in Nigeria,
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  Speaker 2: and the President did not rule it out, but I
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  Speaker 2: will say erin. In one of my conversations with people
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  Speaker 2: in the Trump administration, they essentially told me that a
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  Speaker 2: lot of this is the President making threats to see
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  Speaker 2: how Nigeria will respond. One of them said it was
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  Speaker 2: a quote art of the deal type of strategy that
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  Speaker 2: he is deploying here, and they've tried to argue that
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  Speaker 2: in some ways it's working. You know, the media is
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  Speaker 2: giving more attention to it, but all of this comes
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  Speaker 2: as we know as well that the Pentagon, the President
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  Speaker 2: had directed his Secretary of Defense, Pete Haxeth, to look
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  Speaker 2: into this. They have begun moving now some personnel to
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  Speaker 2: the back to the region after they had told them
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  Speaker 2: to leave essentially a year ago, and so we have
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  Speaker 2: to see where this could all lead.
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  Speaker 1: All right, Elena, thank you very much all that new
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  Speaker 1: reporting from Molena.
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  Speaker 3: The State Department has designated Nigeria as a Country of
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  Speaker 3: Particular Concern over claims by President Trump that the Nigerian
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  Speaker 3: government is not doing enough to protect Christians from terror
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  Speaker 3: groups like Vocalharram versus Hel CNN. Trump has been laser
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  Speaker 3: focused on the treatment of Christians in the African country
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  Speaker 3: after report he saw on Fox News while traveling the
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  Speaker 3: board Air Force one, and just twenty four hours later,
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  Speaker 3: he posted on truth Social that the United States will
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  Speaker 3: cut off aid and go into Nigeria guns a blazing.
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  Speaker 3: He confirmed the possibility of military intervention to reporters.
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  Speaker 4: US Princess could be I've made a lot of things.
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  Speaker 4: As a lot of things, they're killing record numbers of
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  Speaker 4: Christians in Nigeria. They're killing the Christians and killing them
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  Speaker 4: in very large numbers. Are not going to allow that
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  Speaker 4: to happen.
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  Speaker 3: The White House tells CNN that President Trump has been
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  Speaker 3: tracking this issue for some time, even for a segment,
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  Speaker 3: and had already considered posting about it. Nigeria is a
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  Speaker 3: country of two hundred and thirty million people, equal parts
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  Speaker 3: Christian and Muslim, and both Muslims and Christians have fallen
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  Speaker 3: victim to violence from terrorist groups like Bokoharan, but some
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  Speaker 3: high profile killings targeting Christians this year have drawn the
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  Speaker 3: attention to President Trump and many Republicans, including an attack
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  Speaker 3: on a predominantly Christian farming community located on a very
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  Speaker 3: crucial area of farmland that killed at least one hundred people.
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  Speaker 3: Fating me now, as founder and executive director of the
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  Speaker 3: National Security Institute, Jamil Jaffer has seen a military analyst,
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  Speaker 3: retired Colonel Cedric Lane. Let's talk about the scope of
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  Speaker 3: the issue. Trump is saying that Nigeria is allowing the
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  Speaker 3: slaughter of Christians. Do we know if this is true
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  Speaker 3: and the extent this might be happening.
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  Speaker 5: Well, certainly Nigeria is not allowing the slaughter of Christians
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  Speaker 5: or Muslims for that matter. In fact, the Nigerian government
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  Speaker 5: is working very hard within the resource constraints that they
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  Speaker 5: have to actually fight Bokoharam, which is the main group
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  Speaker 5: that is actually attacking mainly Christians, but they're also attacking
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  Speaker 5: Muslims in the northern part of the country. So what
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  Speaker 5: you're seeing is really a state trying to provide counterinsurgency
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  Speaker 5: forces to the region and trying to engage in counterinsurgency operations. Success. Well,
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  Speaker 5: they're not there yet. They're definitely they definitely have some
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  Speaker 5: problems getting this, taking this tak taking care of this
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  Speaker 5: from a mission standpoint. But the issue is that Nigerian
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  Speaker 5: government needs help, not in occupying force to come in there.
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  Speaker 3: Bog Aram has been a terror for a very long time.
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  Speaker 3: The Nigerian government has responded and they're actually shocked. They're
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  Speaker 3: mulling and invasion to their country for this very reason.
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  Speaker 3: What is the best course of action to deal with
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  Speaker 3: what's going on?
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  Speaker 6: Well, look, there are really three two or three different
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  Speaker 6: issues going on in Nigeria. You've got Boca Ram in
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  Speaker 6: the north, You've got bandits in the northwest. You've got
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  Speaker 6: you've got a fight between farmers and herders, people who
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  Speaker 6: are nomadic tribesmen who are who have long been in conflict.
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  Speaker 6: It's really they are. There are religious dynamics to it,
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  Speaker 6: but a lot of it is really about economics and resources,
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  Speaker 6: and so what the government really needs, I think to
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  Speaker 6: Colonel Layden's point is exactly right, they need counterterris and support. Unfortunately,
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  Speaker 6: we got pushed out of Nijera, a neighboring country, just
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  Speaker 6: a year ago. The closest forces we have are in Djibouti,
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  Speaker 6: quite a distance away. Our headquarters for africamand for AFRICAM
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  Speaker 6: is in Germany, right, so we don't have a lot
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  Speaker 6: of resources in the region to bring to bear on
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  Speaker 6: this problem. The best we could probably muster is some
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  Speaker 6: counter terrorism strikes, but those would be probably not against
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  Speaker 6: the Nigerian government, but in favor of the Nigerian government, which,
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  Speaker 6: to Colonel Aid's point is that you're trying to stop
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  Speaker 6: these attacks on Christians and Muslims in their country.
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  Speaker 3: So what would the military be doing there? I mean,
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  Speaker 3: given all those resources, where would the American military come in?
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  Speaker 5: So this would be one of the hardest missions to
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  Speaker 5: plan because counter terrorism missions by their nature are difficult,
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  Speaker 5: and so what you'd have to do is you'd have
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  Speaker 5: to get permission from the Nigerians. To go in there
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  Speaker 5: and to go into the right place, you need ironclad intelligence.
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  Speaker 5: That's something that they're not doing in Venezuela, for example.
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  Speaker 5: They are just attacking targets as they see them. That
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  Speaker 5: is not the way to do this kind of thing.
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  Speaker 5: What you need to do is you need to find
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  Speaker 5: out who the people are, where they're located, who the
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  Speaker 5: most important ones are, and then eliminate those And that's
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  Speaker 5: the most efficient way to do that. We've done that
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  Speaker 5: before in Iraq, we've done it in Afghanistan. But you
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  Speaker 5: know a case, in the case of Nigeria, you were
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  Speaker 5: talking a vast country that's thirty seven percent larger than
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  Speaker 5: Texas in terms of square miles, and it's two hundred
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  Speaker 5: like you mentioned, two hundred and thirty million people plus,
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  Speaker 5: and it's a very complicated, really difficult area to work in.
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  Speaker 3: Concrete intelligence requires trust and getting permission from a government
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  Speaker 3: that they want to deploy these resources would require total
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  Speaker 3: lockdown and information.
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  Speaker 6: Do we have that, Well, it doesn't look like it right.
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  Speaker 6: I mean, our resources of the region are constrained. We've
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  Speaker 6: largely sort of taken our hands off the tiller. And
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  Speaker 6: it comes to counter terrorism efforts around the globe. For
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  Speaker 6: the better part of a decade, we've been down playing
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  Speaker 6: and downtrending our counterist emissions. We've had a few successes.
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  Speaker 3: Here and there.
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  Speaker 6: We've got Aman Alizawahiri right, we got cost some Solamani right.
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  Speaker 6: We've been success our partners, these Raeli as at least
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  Speaker 6: have been ver successful against the number of terroist groups
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  Speaker 6: in their region. But in Africa and frankly in Southeast
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  Speaker 6: Asia as well, we have reduced our characterism footprint in
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  Speaker 6: part because we have multiple administrations who said we need
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  Speaker 6: to focus here at home, including President Trump on the
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  Speaker 6: campaign trails. So it's actually good to see President Trump
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  Speaker 6: getting more concerned about terrorism in our in our hemisphere
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  Speaker 6: with efforts against Venezuela and drug traffickers who ease cast
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  Speaker 6: as terrorists, and frankly, the real terrorists al Kaieda and
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  Speaker 6: the Islamic State, who are operating actively in a range
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  Speaker 6: of parts of the world, including predominantly in West Africa.
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  Speaker 6: We see them about take over the government in Mali.
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  Speaker 6: That's a huge problem. And you're agreeing or off that ball, of.
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  Speaker 1: Course, Noco terrorism.
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  Speaker 3: We're waiting for information from the administration for transparency as
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  Speaker 3: to what's happening on those boats, who's there. We do
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  Speaker 3: require new process in this country, you're agreeing, well.
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  Speaker 5: Yeah, In fact, what Jamila is saying is absolutely right,
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  Speaker 5: because we could see within days the takeover of the
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  Speaker 5: country of Mali, which is to the northwest of Nigeria,
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  Speaker 5: and that would mean that al Qaida sympathetic people are
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  Speaker 5: going to actually be in charge of a country for
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  Speaker 5: the first time ever, and they're going to be able
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  Speaker 5: to use that as a springboard for attacks in the
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  Speaker 5: rest of Africa and potentially for attacks in Europe and
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  Speaker 5: possibly even in the Americas. So this is going to
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  Speaker 5: be really important development and we have to really pay
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  Speaker 5: attention to this. The capital is surrounded, Bamaco of Mali
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  Speaker 5: is surrounded by rebel forces right now. They're fuel shortages
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  Speaker 5: and that's the kind of thing that is going to
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  Speaker 5: lead to the fall of that government and that'll be
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  Speaker 5: dangerous for Nigeria as well.