“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.”
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