Trump Orders Muslim Brotherhood Terrorist Designation Review

US Pres­i­dent Don­ald Trump has signed an exec­u­tive order direct­ing a ter­ror­ist des­ig­na­tion review for spe­cif­ic Mus­lim Broth­er­hood chap­ters. On 25 Novem­ber 2025, Fox News report­ed that the order signed on 24 Novem­ber launch­es the first for­mal review of Broth­er­hood branch­es in Egypt, Jor­dan, and Lebanon under US des­ig­na­tion laws. The arti­cle begins:

Pres­i­dent Don­ald Trump’s new exec­u­tive order direct­ing the State and Trea­sury depart­ments to pur­sue ter­ror­ism des­ig­na­tions for spe­cif­ic Mus­lim Broth­er­hood chap­ters marks one of the most sig­nif­i­cant shifts in U.S. pol­i­cy toward the move­ment in decades. Signed on Nov. 24, it launch­es the first for­mal review of Broth­er­hood branch­es in Egypt, Jor­dan and Lebanon under U.S. des­ig­na­tion laws and rede­fines how Wash­ing­ton treats Islamist move­ments with polit­i­cal and mil­i­tant wings. Sen. Ted Cruz, R‑Texas, praised the move, call­ing it essen­tial for nation­al security.

Read more: https://www.foxnews.com/world/trump-moves-against-muslim-brotherhood-islamist-group-spreads-west

Key Points

• Foun­da­tion for Defense of Democ­ra­cies ana­lyst Mari­am Wah­ba stat­ed direc­tive replaces years of debate with con­crete action and forces US agen­cies to assess Broth­er­hood enti­ties func­tion­ing as real orga­ni­za­tions with lead­er­ship struc­tures, financ­ing chan­nels, and doc­u­ment­ed ties to ter­ror­ist groups.
• Trump’s order adopts a mod­el used when the Unit­ed States des­ig­nat­ed Hamas, the Broth­er­hood’s Gaza branch, in 1997, tar­get­ing com­po­nents that engage in vio­lence rather than ide­ol­o­gy itself, bypass­ing debate over whether the Broth­er­hood is a uni­fied glob­al move­ment or a loose network.
• Egypt out­lawed the Broth­er­hood in 2013, accus­ing the move­ment of rad­i­cal­iza­tion. Sau­di Ara­bia and the UAE des­ig­nat­ed it as a direct threat to nation­al sta­bil­i­ty, Jor­dan dis­solved its local chap­ter this year fol­low­ing arrests tied to illic­it weapons activ­i­ty, and Aus­tria took legal action against Broth­er­hood-linked networks.
• Israeli Prime Min­is­ter Ben­jamin Netanyahu praised Trump’s action, call­ing the Mus­lim Broth­er­hood orga­ni­za­tion that threat­ens sta­bil­i­ty through­out the Mid­dle East and beyond, stat­ing Israel intends to expand its own restric­tions amid con­cern about a resur­gent Islamist bloc backed by Turkey and Qatar.

Implications of the Presidential Directive to Review ‘Muslim Brotherhood Chapters’ for Possible FTO Designation

The Glob­al Influ­ence Oper­a­tions Report (GIOR) has pub­lished a new report titled “Impli­ca­tions of the Pres­i­den­tial Direc­tive to Review ‘Mus­lim Broth­er­hood Chap­ters’ for Pos­si­ble FTO Des­ig­na­tion.” Accord­ing to the syn­op­sis of the report:

The pres­i­den­tial direc­tive to review “Mus­lim Broth­er­hood chap­ters in the Mid­dle East” cre­ates imme­di­ate ambi­gu­i­ty, as the procla­ma­tion describes the Broth­er­hood as a transna­tion­al move­ment with var­ied struc­tures. Mid­dle East­ern chap­ters are for­mal orga­ni­za­tions, while West­ern MB-linked networks—the Glob­al Mus­lim Brotherhood—are legal­ly sep­a­rate but con­nect­ed through ide­ol­o­gy and per­son­al ties. U.S. and UK reviews have his­tor­i­cal­ly des­ig­nat­ed only spe­cif­ic vio­lent off­shoots such as Hamas, HASM, and Liwa al-Thawra, not the broad­er move­ment. For GIOR, the direc­tive rein­forces the need to dis­tin­guish clear­ly between for­mal chap­ters, glob­al net­works, and splin­ter groups to avoid ana­lyt­i­cal or legal conflation.

Read the full report here.

Dis­claimer: The Glob­al Influ­ence Oper­a­tions Report (GIOR) uti­lizes AI through­out the post­ing process, includ­ing the gen­er­a­tion of sum­maries for news items, intro­duc­tions, key points, and, often, the “con­text” sec­tion. We rec­om­mend ver­i­fy­ing all infor­ma­tion before use. Addi­tion­al­ly, all images are gen­er­at­ed using AI and are intend­ed sole­ly for illus­tra­tive pur­pos­es. While they rep­re­sent the events or indi­vid­u­als dis­cussed, they should not be inter­pret­ed as real-world photography.