The White House is hosting a group of persecuted Christians after President Donald Trump addressed the National Prayer Breakfast on Feb. 5. (Roberto Schmidt/AFP/Getty ImagesArchana Thiyagara/AFP/Getty Images )
"It's a mission. It's actually a mission. On Christmas Day and in close coordination with the government of Nigeria – we worked with them, but they got to get tougher — I ordered powerful airstrikes 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," Trump said.
Among the persecuted Christians attending the White House meeting are: Rev. Gideon Para-Mallam of Nigeria; Grace Drexel, who faced persecution in China; Pastor Andrew Brunson, who faced persecution in Turkey; Mariam Ibraheem, who faced persecution in Sudan; Mario Felix Lleonart Barroso of Cuba; and Y Phic "Jack" Hdok of Vietnam.
Andrew Craig Brunson, an evangelical pastor from Black Mountain, North Carolina, arrives at his house in Izmir, Turkey, in 2018. (AP Photo/Emre Tazegul, File)
Grace Drexel is the daughter of Pastor Ezra Jin, who was detained in China on Oct. 10, 2025, alongside nearly 30 other church leaders in what supporters describe as a major crackdown on unregistered churches. Mariam Ibraheem drew global attention after a Sudanese Shariah court sentenced her in 2013 to 100 lashes and death by hanging for alleged apostasy after leaving the Islamic faith while she was pregnant.
Cuban pastor Barroso, who said he was detained 21 times and sent to a labor camp for his faith before fleeing Cuba in 2016, and Y Phic "Jack" Hdok, a Montagnard Christian advocate who fled Vietnam in 2018, are also attending.
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The meeting comes just ahead of the one-year anniversary of the creation of the White House Faith Office on Feb. 7, 2025. Trump launched the White House Faith Office via executive order, tasking it with leading the executive branch’s outreach to faith-based groups, community organizations and houses of worship.
The White House in Washington DC with a blue sky. (Patrick Semansky)
In honor of the anniversary and as lawmakers and others gathered for the National Prayer Breakfast, the Faith Office said there are "150 reasons why President Trump is the most pro-faith, pro-life and pro-religious liberty president in American history."
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"He protected religious liberty and affirmed faith in America. He has fought anti-Christian, antisemitic, and other forms of anti-religious bias while ending the weaponization of government against all people of faith. He has expanded school choice, protected parental rights, restored biological truth, uplifted families, ended illegal and divisive DEI policies, stopped taxpayer funding for abortion, restored free speech, and stood side-by-side with Israel," the Faith Office said of Trump.
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/targeted-faith-overseas-persecuted-christians-get-white-house-welcome-under-trump