Trump Orders State, Treasury to Designate Specific Muslim Brotherhood Chapters as Terrorist Organizations

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump signed an executive order Monday directing the State and Treasury departments to begin the formal process of designating specific chapters of the Muslim Brotherhood as foreign terrorist organizations (FTOs) and specially designated global terrorists (SDGTs).

The order instructs Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent to evaluate Muslim Brotherhood entities in multiple countries and implement designations that would trigger U.S. sanctions, including asset freezes, travel bans and criminal penalties for providing material support.

A senior administration official called the action a “decisive step” to disrupt the Brotherhood’s transnational network, citing its historical and continuing ties to Hamas and support for rocket attacks from Lebanon after the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas assault on Israel.

The Muslim Brotherhood, founded in 1928, is one of the Arab world’s oldest Islamist movements. It has millions of followers, operates legal political parties in countries such as Jordan and Tunisia, and has participated in elections. Several governments, including Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain among them, already classify the entire organization or major branches as terrorist entities.

Unlike al-Qaida and the Islamic State group, which reject democratic participation, the Brotherhood has generally pursued gradual Islamization through outreach and politics, though critics link it to Hamas.

The designation effort revives a Trump first-term initiative that stalled amid internal debates over the group’s decentralized structure and legal hurdles to treating it as a single entity. Previous reviews led only to targeted sanctions against two small Egyptian splinter groups.

Monday’s order sidesteps those concerns by focusing on specific national chapters rather than the entire organization.

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters the designations will cut funding streams, expose front groups and signal that the U.S. “will no longer tolerate the Muslim Brotherhood’s decades-long campaign of deception and support for terrorism.”

The State Department has 180 days to complete its review and submit recommendations. Final designations would be published in the Federal Register and take immediate effect.

Some civil-liberties advocates and foreign-policy scholars warned that broad designations could strain ties with allies such as Jordan and Qatar, where Brotherhood-affiliated parties operate legally, and complicate counterterrorism cooperation.

The move aligns with bipartisan congressional efforts, including the Muslim Brotherhood Terrorist Designation Act of 2025, which describes the group as a transnational Islamist organization that enables terrorism through affiliates like Hamas.

Conservative commentator Laura Loomer criticized the order for not going far enough, writing on social media that it spares the “most aggressive” Brotherhood chapters in Qatar, Turkey and Syria and therefore “doesn’t have any teeth.”

On Nov. 18, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican, issued a proclamation labeling both the Muslim Brotherhood and the Council on American-Islamic Relations as terrorist entities under state law, prompting reviews of ties with the groups by several universities and companies.

-Real America's Voice

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