Targeted for their faith overseas, persecuted Christians get a White House welcome under Trump

FIRST ON FOX: The White House is welcoming a cohort of persecuted Christians from around the globe on Thursday following President Donald Trump's speech at the National Prayer Breakfast, Fox News Digital learned. 

The White House Faith Office, led by senior adviser Pastor Paula White-Cain and faith director Jenny Korn, will welcome at least six Christians who have been persecuted in their home countries, such as China, Nigeria and Cuba, Fox News Digital learned. 

The White House meeting comes as Trump addressed the National Prayer Breakfast on Thursday morning, which draws hundreds of lawmakers from both sides of the political aisle, business leaders and foreign dignitaries each February to discuss faith and pray for the nation’s future.

Trump said from the dais that "no administration in modern history has done more to confront the plight of persecuted Christians around the world than we have."

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"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.

Para-Mallam, a Nigerian pastor who founded the Gideon & Funmi Para-Mallam Peace Foundation, has worked with survivors of attacks on Christians in the nation and leads advocacy and humanitarian relief efforts in some of Nigeria’s hardest-hit communities. 

The U.S. launched airstrikes in northwest Nigeria on Christmas night targeting ISIS militants Trump accused of killing Christians, which Para-Mallam said led to "one of the most peaceful Christmas seasons for Nigerian Christians in recent history."

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The group also includes Pastor Andrew Brunson, the American pastor who spent more than two decades ministering in Turkey before his 2016 arrest on what supporters said were false accusations. His high-profile case ended with his release in 2018 after Trump pushed for it.

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.

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."

"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.