A Fox News report prompted Trump to post about Nigeria, setting off White House scramble

A Fox News report prompted President Trump to call out Nigeria over the killing of Christians and then threaten military action, multiple U.S. officials said.

WASHINGTON — A Fox News report prompted President Donald Trump to call out Nigeria over the killing of Christians and then threaten military action, setting off a scramble in the White House over the weekend, according to multiple U.S. officials.

It’s still unclear what — if anything — the administration will do to counter Islamic militants in Nigeria, but precision drone strikes are among the preliminary options being considered, two U.S. officials said.

A White House spokesperson declined Monday to offer any details on the plans under consideration.

“At President Trump’s direction, the administration is planning options for possible action to stop the killing of Christians in Nigeria," the spokeswoman, Anna Kelly, said in a statement. "Any announcements will come from the President directly."

A vendor sells local newspapers with headlines referring to President Donald Trump's comments about Nigeria, on the street of Lagos, Nigeria, on Sunday.Sunday Alamba / APTrump's first social media post on Nigeria came Friday night after he watched a Fox News report on violence in the West African nation, two administration officials said. The president asked his staff for more information about the situation and, shortly after, declared in a Truth Social post that he was designating Nigeria a "country of particular concern" over its failure to, in his words, stop the "mass slaughter" of Christians.