U.S. President Donald Trump has signed an executive order directing his administration to examine whether certain branches of the Muslim Brotherhood should be formally designated as terrorist organizations, the White House said.
According to the statement, the order instructs U.S. officials to study whether specific Brotherhood-affiliated entities in Lebanon, Egypt and Jordan meet the criteria to be listed as Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTOs) and as global terrorist entities on U.S. sanctions lists.
“The president is confronting the Muslim Brotherhood’s transnational network, which fuels terrorism and destabilization campaigns against U.S. interests and those of our allies in the Middle East,” the White House said.
Under the order, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent are tasked with launching the designation process. They are to work with Attorney General Pam Bondi and Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard to prepare a detailed report on which branches should be considered for listing.
The report must be submitted to the president within 30 days, via the national security adviser. If the report concludes there is a basis for designation, the State or Treasury Department will then have 45 days to take “all appropriate steps” to proceed with the listings, the order says.
A White House “fact sheet” said the ultimate objective of the move is to dismantle the operational capabilities of any designated branches, cut off their access to funds and remove any threat they pose to U.S. citizens and to U.S. national security.
In a separate statement posted on X, the White House said the United States “will not tolerate those who finance and support violent extremism,” adding that Trump had taken “decisive action to protect America from terrorist threats by initiating the process to classify certain Muslim Brotherhood entities as foreign terrorist organizations.”
The executive order describes the Muslim Brotherhood, founded in Egypt in 1928, as a cross-border movement with branches across and beyond the Middle East. It singles out the Lebanese, Jordanian and Egyptian branches, accusing them of involvement in, or support for, violence and destabilizing campaigns that harm their own societies, U.S. citizens and American interests.
As an example, it claims that after Hamas’s 7 October 2023 attack on Israel, the Brotherhood’s “military wing” in Lebanon joined Hamas, Hezbollah and other Palestinian factions in firing multiple rocket barrages at civilian and military targets inside Israel. It also alleges that a prominent Egyptian Brotherhood figure urged violent attacks on U.S. partners and interests on the same day, and that Jordanian Brotherhood leaders have long provided material support to Hamas’s armed wing.
“These activities threaten the safety of U.S. citizens in the Levant and other parts of the Middle East, as well as the security and stability of our regional partners,” the order states.
The document says U.S. policy is to work with regional partners to “eliminate the capabilities and operations” of any Brotherhood branches that are designated as terrorist organizations, cut off their resources and “end any threat posed by these branches to U.S. citizens or to the national security of the United States.”
Under existing U.S. law, once a group is designated as a Foreign Terrorist Organization, anyone in the United States or under U.S. jurisdiction is barred from knowingly providing it with material support or resources. Membership or representation in such an organization can also be grounds for removal from the United States, according to the State Department guidance cited in the article.