Trump allies, who felt the executive order didn’t go far enough, say it underscores the White House’s sensitivity to MAGA blowback.
President Donald Trump’s friendly Oval Office meeting with Zohran Mamdani roiled parts of the MAGA base last week.
Then, just 72 hours later, the White House gave supporters something they had long sought: an executive order that moved to designate some Muslim Brotherhood chapters as foreign terrorist organizations. Key MAGA loyalists view the move as an attempted peace offering and an effort to shift heat away from Trump for seemingly cozying up to a democratic socialist who is poised to be New York City’s first Muslim mayor.
Mamdani has no connection to the Muslim Brotherhood, a political movement established in Egypt with branches around the world, but political adversaries have said he is a radical Islamist in part because of his tough-on-Israel stance on the campaign trail.
Far-right activist and MAGA influencer Laura Loomer cast the order as an attempt to “throw a bone” to the president’s peeved supporters.
Loomer said she “found it a little strange” the executive order came after the Mamdani visit, during which the president defended the incoming New York City mayor and declined to say he was a “jihadist.”
Mamdani’s campaign spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment. But while on the campaign trail, Mamdani addressed what he called “racist, baseless” attacks aimed at his Muslim identity.
“While my opponents in this race have brought hatred to the forefront, this is just a glimpse of what so many have to endure every day across the city,” Mamdani said outside a mosque in the South Bronx last month. “I will not change who I am, how I eat, or the faith that I am proud to call my own.”
Trump allies, who felt the executive order didn’t go far enough, say the effort nonetheless underscores the White House’s sensitivity to MAGA blowback, after a weekend of infighting over whether the president had — at least temporarily — undermined the Republican Party’s plans to tie Democrats to Mamdani’s most progressive policy proposals like free buses and government-run grocery stores ahead of next year’s midterms.
“President Trump is best at reading the room, so the White House is particularly sensitive to MAGA voices,” said Steve Bannon, the former chief White House strategist. “Friday shook a lot of folks — from [Rep. Elise] Stefanik to the [National Republican Congressional Committee] to the anti-Sharia crowd. The messaging folks got it and pivoted to another narrative.”
While Loomer and Bannon are prominent allies outside the White House, a senior administration official, granted anonymity to speak about internal thinking, said the Muslim Brotherhood executive order timing had no connection to the mayor-elect’s visit. The official also argued that the Oval meeting “doesn’t mean that Republicans are going to lose the midterms.”
“At the end of the day, if [Mamdani] continues his policies that he touted on the campaign trail, and enacts that, that will speak for itself. And Republicans can run on that,” the official said. “They can run on policies that he enacts while he’s in office.”
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters this week that the Oval Office meeting demonstrated that the president is serving “all Americans,” and that he wants the best for New York.
“He loves New York City. He helped build that skyline,” she said. “He spent his whole life there. So he really wants to see New York do well.”
Neither the White House’s push back nor the executive order have been enough to tame criticism of the president. Loomer and other MAGA allies have said Trump’s action falls short of fully designating the Muslim Brotherhood chapters a foreign terrorist organization, instead setting in motion a process to do so — with Trump calling on the secretaries of State and Treasury, in consultation with the attorney general and director of national intelligence, to deliver a joint report concerning such a designation of chapters, including those in Lebanon, Jordan and Egypt.
“I would like to see an actual designation. It’s not a designation,” Loomer said. “Read the text. It’s a 75-day review period to initiate a process to possibly create a designation.”
Loomer and other right-wing influencers are also outraged by what they viewed as an exclusion of chapters in Qatar and Turkey, two countries that have strengthened ties to the Trump administration. Qatar gifted the United States a $400 million luxury jet.
The demands to name the Muslim Brotherhood a foreign terrorist organization date back to the early days of Trump’s first term.
The executive order, which Trump teased on Sunday, came on the heels of the latest calls from Republicans for an investigation into the group, with Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) and Stefanik pushing the Treasury Department to probe its funding sources. And Trump officials have touted the executive order as a major step toward targeting the vast political movement, a move the president considered during his first term after meeting with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi.
“This is just the beginning,” said Sebastian Gorka, deputy assistant to the president and senior director of counter terrorism, in a post on X. “All Jihadists are in the crosshairs. Similarly, anyone who gives aid and succor to Jihadists.”
But Trump’s Mamdani embrace is still rippling through the party in other ways. It was perhaps the most ill-timed for Stefanik, who has built her campaign, in part, around tying Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul to 34-year-old Mamdani. Trump last week, within minutes, undermined her argument and declined to repeat her claim that Mamdani is a “jihadist.”
“I stand by my statement,” she said in an interview with News 12 this week. “He is a jihadist. This is an area where President Trump and I disagree. But what we all want to work toward is making New York more affordable and safe, and that’s where I have a very strong record and working relationship with the administration.”
Other Trump allies have defended the president’s handling of last week’s meeting, echoing administration officials’ pushback. One person close to the White House, granted anonymity to speak candidly, said the president’s approach was “smart” and that Trump — who has threatened to strip New York City of federal funding and to send in the National Guard — doesn’t want any of Mamdani’s potential failures to be pinned on him.
“Eventually [Mamdani’s] gonna fail,” the person said. “And I think the reason President Trump’s doing this is — when he does fail, he doesn’t want him to say he failed because Donald Trump sabotaged him. Donald Trump didn’t give him the funding.”
Diana Nerozzi and Joe Anuta contributed to this report.