Trump imposes travel restriction on Nigerians, slams full ban on 7 countries

United States President Donald Trump has added Nigeria to a list of countries facing partial travel restrictions.

The White House announced this via a statement issued on Tuesday, December 16, 2025.

The White House said Trump was imposing partial travel restrictions on citizens of African countries, including Nigeria, as well as Black-majority Caribbean nations.

Trump also expanded a US travel ban by barring nationals of seven more countries including Syria, as well as Palestinian Authority passport holders, from entering the United States.

The White House said Trump, who has long campaigned to restrict immigration and has spoken in increasingly strident terms, moved to ban foreigners who “intend to threaten” Americans.

The White House statement added that the president also wants to prevent foreigners in the United States who would “undermine or destabilize its culture, government, institutions or founding principles.”

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Trump’s move comes days after two US troops and a civilian were killed in Syria, which Trump has moved to rehabilitate internationally since the fall of longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad.

Syrian authorities said the perpetrator was a member of the security forces who was due to be dismissed for “extremist Islamist ideas.”

The Trump administration had already informally barred travel from Palestinian Authority passport holders as it acts in solidarity with Israel against the recognition of a Palestinian state by other leading Western countries including France and Britain.

Other countries newly subjected to the full travel ban came from some of Africa’s poorest countries – Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger, Sierra Leone, and South Sudan – as well as Laos in southeast Asia.

The Star