The Trump administration on Tuesday designated three of the Muslim Brotherhood's largest branches in the Middle East as terrorist groups, unveiling long-awaited sanctions aimed at financially crippling the global Islamist organization responsible for fomenting violence against the United States and its allies.
The joint action from the State and Treasury Departments targets the Muslim Brotherhood's sects in Egypt, Jordan, and Lebanon in the first step "of an ongoing, sustained effort to thwart Muslim Brotherhood violence and destabilization wherever it occurs," according to the Treasury Department. The department noted in its release announcing the move that "additional terrorist designations" may occur as the Trump administration examines "all available tools to deprive these Muslim Brotherhood chapters of the resources to engage in or support terrorism."
"The Muslim Brotherhood has inspired, nurtured, and funded terrorist groups like Hamas that are direct threats to the safety and security of the American people and our allies," Undersecretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence John K. Hurley said in a statement. "Despite their peaceful public façade, both the Egyptian and Jordanian Muslim brotherhood branches have conspired to support Hamas’s terrorism and undermine the sovereignty of their own national governments."
Congressional Republicans have argued that the United States should designate the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist organization since at least 2015, but legislation doing so never reached the president's desk. After President Donald Trump took office for a second time and expressed an interest in targeting the Muslim Brotherhood through executive actions, Sen. Ted Cruz (R., Texas) introduced a bill featuring a "new modernized strategy" to systematically sanction the groups' branches around the world rather than the brotherhood as a whole. The administration's announcement on Tuesday indicates that it is using Cruz's approach, going after individual Muslim Brotherhood sects across the Middle East.
The Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control went after the Muslim Brotherhood's Jordanian and Egyptian branches, both of which provide material support for Hamas, while the State Department targeted the Lebanese Muslim Brotherhood. The Lebanese branch, known as al-Jamaa al-Islamiyah, received both the Foreign Terrorist Organization and Specially Designated Global Terrorist labels from Foggy Bottom, freezing its assets and preventing it from doing business with Western financial institutions.
The U.S. government found in mid-2025 that the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood coordinated with Hamas "on possible terrorist activities against Israeli interests," according to the Treasury Department, which added that both groups discussed operations to "destabilize the Egyptian government." Muslim Brotherhood members from Egypt also helped Hamas volunteers travel to the Gaza Strip in 2024, the Treasury Department noted in its release.
"Individuals who wanted to travel to Gaza to fight for Hamas needed connections to the Muslim Brotherhood," the department stated. "Once these individuals arrived in Egypt, these potential fighters connected with the Muslim Brotherhood to enter Gaza, with the Muslim Brotherhood regularly keeping Hamas abreast of their status and where and when they would bring in fighters."
The Jordanian Muslim Brotherhood engaged in similar activities over the past year, helping Hamas manufacture "rockets, explosives, and drones" that the terror group used to attack Israel. It also helped raise money for Hamas and aided Hamas's "recruitment operations."
The Treasury Department explained in its press release that the Muslim Brotherhood presents itself as a nonviolent political organization while supporting terrorism.
"Although the Muslim Brotherhood, to which Hamas has pledged allegiance, claims to have renounced violence, the Muslim Brotherhood branches designated today continue to promote, incite, and glorify terrorism that directly threatens the interests of the United States and its allies," the department stated. "Chapters of the Muslim Brotherhood purport to be legitimate civic organizations while, behind the scenes, they explicitly and enthusiastically support terrorist groups like Hamas."
