An executive order signed Monday by President Donald Trump initiates the designation process for select Muslim Brotherhood chapters "as Foreign Terrorist Organizations and Specially Designated Global Terrorists," The Washington Post reported.
The Sunni Islamist organization known as the Muslim Brotherhood emerged in Egypt in 1928 and temporarily secured political authority in the country in 2012, before being removed from power in a 2013 military overthrow.
The White House stated the designation aims to counter the organization's international network, which officials claim drives terrorism and destabilizing operations targeting American interests and regional allies throughout the Middle East. Documentation released alongside the directive points to relationships connecting Jordan's Muslim Brotherhood faction with Hamas, the organization behind the October 7, 2023, assault on Israel, along with additional purported associations with terrorist activities.
Financial assets held by these groups within the United States can now be targeted under the designation, while military intelligence collection on them becomes permissible, and individuals judged to have supplied "material support" to designated Muslim Brotherhood chapters face potential prosecution.
Within 45 days, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent must submit chapter recommendations for the terrorist classification, according to the directive. White House documentation indicated that branches operating in Lebanon, Egypt, and Jordan number among those under consideration for designation.
During his initial presidential term, the Trump administration explored designating the organization as a terrorist entity following the president's meeting with Egyptian President Abdel Fatah El-Sisi, who assumed power through the 2013 military coup after removing his democratically elected predecessor, Mohamed Morsi, a prominent Muslim Brotherhood official. In 2013, Egypt classified the group as a terrorist organization, with multiple other Arab states following suit.
The current executive order differs from the first-term initiative by calling for the terrorist classification of individual Muslim Brotherhood chapters rather than the organization as a whole. While Muslim Brotherhood chapters maintain shared ideological principles, international organizational cohesion remains absent.
The Trump directive arrives one week following Texas Gov. Greg Abbott's parallel designation of the organization. Legislation introduced during the summer by a bipartisan coalition of lawmakers, including Sen. Ted Cruz and Rep. Jared Moskowitz, similarly sought to establish such a classification.
