“Please Watch and Make your Deductions,” read the tweet, which included a video clip in which Trump says: “Anybody throwing stones, rocks . . . we will consider that a firearm because there is not much difference.”

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“They want to throw rocks at our military, our military fights back,” Trump said in his Nov. 1 remarks.

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The tweet has since been deleted.

It was published the same week that Nigerian army troops opened fire on a march of protesters belonging to the Islamic Movement of Nigeria (IMN), who were demanding the release of their jailed leader, Ibrahim el-Zakzaky. IMN represents many members of Nigeria’s Shiite minority and opposes the use of violence.

After Zakzaky’s arrest in 2015, the Nigerian government accused him of an assassination attempt against the country’s army chief of staff. Zakzaky denies those allegations.

During Zakzaky’s arrest, Nigerian soldiers are believed to have killed hundreds more members of the group. IMN says that at least 42 people were killed by Nigerian forces on Monday and Tuesday.

The Nigerian army did not respond to a request for comment.

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The latest violence is part of a broader crackdown by the Nigerian government on the country’s Shiite minority and has triggered international condemnations.

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“Any Shiite in Nigeria is under threat and can be gunned down any day, any time, any minute,” IMN youth leader Muhammed Ibrahim Gamawa told Reuters.

Last Thursday, Tibor P. Nagy Jr., the U.S. assistant secretary of state for African affairs, took to Twitter to condemn the violence. “Very concerned by the deadly clashes between Nigerian security forces and IMN members,” Nagy wrote. “We call on both sides to exercise restraint, and we urge the Government of Nigeria to conduct a thorough investigation & hold accountable those responsible for violating Nigerian law.”

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But hours later the Nigerian army tweeted out Trump’s remarks. The U.S. president has never directly addressed Nigeria’s sectarian tensions, but the case was yet another example of how Trump’s domestic rhetoric has been used to justify violence abroad and has damaged the influence of U.S. diplomats who try to uphold official State Department policies.

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Trump’s repeated attacks on the media have made it harder for diplomats abroad to defend press freedom. On trade, the president has weakened the standing of the World Trade Organization by ignoring its trade war warnings and confronting China. That decision could still have broader implications in the future by preventing other disputes from being solved, with Trump blamed for breaking the international consensus first. Trump’s at times friendly treatment of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has also raised questions in other authoritarian nations about whether Trump values personal ties more than actual progress on improving human rights records, previously a cornerstone of U.S. diplomacy.

Overall, Trump’s “America First” approach has satisfied the needs of some rulers, but it has left the United States far more isolated than in previous decades. Diplomats working abroad complain that the United States may still be shaping global politics, but it’s no longer controlling the message.

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Friday’s now-deleted tweet by the Nigerian army is just the latest example of that.

Max Bearak in Nairobi contributed to this report. This post was first published Nov. 2. It was updated Nov. 6.