By Melanie Nathan, Nov. 03
How we vote is not a technicality of politics; it is a mirror of our character. In a democracy, every ballot is a moral statement about who we are and what we are willing to endorse. When we choose leaders, we are also choosing whose lives matter, which cruelties we will overlook, and what kind of power we are prepared to unleash in our name. Our votes either rekindle the American light — the idea that this country can stand for human dignity and justice — or they help to extinguish it.
Trump’s hatred for Africa is once again rearing its ugly head.
He has spent years boasting on the world stage that he single-handedly “stopped eight wars” — more, he claims, than any president in history — without ever clearly identifying which wars he is talking about or offering meaningful detail. Wrapped into this self-promotion is his U.S.-brokered Gaza deal, which did secure the release of hostages and a temporary ceasefire, but never amounted to a comprehensive, enforceable peace plan. That fragile ceasefire has since been breached, and the fundamental issues remain unresolved.
At the same time, he has reshaped America’s posture away from “defense” and toward open belligerence. On September 5, 2025, he signed an executive order restoring the historic name “Department of War” as a secondary title for the Department of Defense, allowing officials to use labels like “Secretary of War” and even redirecting Pentagon branding to “war.gov.” The symbolism is obvious: this is not about peace; it is about glorifying conflict.
He has also been busy manufacturing and amplifying new “wars.” In the Caribbean and eastern Pacific, his administration has framed a series of lethal U.S. airstrikes on suspected narcotrafficker boats linked to Venezuelan and Colombian groups as a grand “war on drug gangs,” even as dozens have been killed at sea with little public evidence about who was actually on those vessels.
Now he is turning that same reckless logic on Mexico and Africa.
Trump is openly threatening military action against Nigeria, invoking the very real problem of extremist insurgencies but distorting it into a narrative that makes Nigeria sound like a terrorist state rather than a country battling multiple insurgent groups on its own soil. Analysts and Nigerian officials alike have pointed out that Muslims as well as Christians have been killed in large numbers by Boko Haram and related groups, and that Nigeria’s government officially defends religious pluralism. Yet Trump’s rhetoric deliberately feeds a simplistic, sectarian story that plays well with certain U.S. constituencies while putting millions of Nigerians at risk. America should be offering principled support to strengthen human rights and civilian protection — not threatening to bomb yet another country already suffering from insurgency.
And perhaps worst of all, he is presiding over one of the most devastating wars and humanitarian crises of our time — Sudan — with near silence. While mass displacement, rape, starvation, and ethnic cleansing unfold, the self-proclaimed “man of peace” has failed to meaningfully leverage the power of the United States to push for an end to the conflict or to mobilize the scale of humanitarian response this catastrophe demands. This, too, will be part of his legacy: performative peace rhetoric masking profound failure where it matters most — in the protection of human life.
What makes all of this worse is not only the man himself, but the American people and the American Congress. For every failure, for every horror carried out in our name, there is shared responsibility. Just as ordinary Germans could not ultimately wash their hands of what was done under the Nazi regime, we, too, will be judged for what we tolerated, excused, or voted for. In the end, history does not only judge leaders. It judges the people who empower them, enable them, and refuse to stop them.
Melanie Nathan
Co-Founder JWORI
Country Conditions Expert in Asylum Courts for asylum seekers from Nigeria
fleeing anti-LGBT persecution
Directs African Human Rights Coalition
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