Sebastian Gorka, the National Security Council’s senior director for counterterrorism, defended the Trump administration’s executive order mandating the assessment of certain branches of the Muslim Brotherhood for designation as foreign terrorist organizations, which some critics have argued does not go far enough.

Gorka, speaking at a Hudson Institute conference on antisemitism on Friday, said that the administration is following the procedures and limitations laid out in federal law relating to terrorism designations, and said that the administration fully intends to target further branches of the Muslim Brotherhood with the ultimate goal of destroying the entire organization.

Analysts have criticized the administration for only naming the Egyptian, Lebanese and Jordanian branches of the Muslim Brotherhood for potential designation, not mentioning Turkey and Qatar’s backing of the group and not designating the entire Muslim Brotherhood from the start or explicitly laying out an intention to do so.

“It’s a statement of designation to occur, not a de facto designation, because we follow the law in the Trump administration. We believe in the Constitution and the statutes agreed upon by Congress and signed by the president. We don’t just do stuff because we want to,” Gorka said.

“FTO designation has to be done according to the law. According to the law a foreign terrorist organization must have killed Americans or must have gravely affected the national security of the United States, and that must be proven with predominantly unclassified information that stands up in a court of law and which is less than three years old,” he explained.

The NSC official said that the administration’s executive order had been “woefully misinterpreted and misrepresented by the clickbait prostitutes of social media, some of whom paint themselves as MAGA, who just need the clicks,” making specific reference to “Laura” — likely far-right influencer Laura Loomer, and “Mr. Carlson” — Tucker Carlson.

Gorka said that the three branches named in the executive order are “slam dunk cases,” and that the administration plans to go after additional branches. 

“For the record, this is not the end, it is just the beginning, and we are assiduously working on the next tranche of designations right now,” Gorka said. 

The executive order, on its own, does not designate branches. It names branches within the three countries to be assessed for potential designation.

“Please read the statute, you cretinous individuals. We’re not designating states, it’s organizations,” Gorka continued. “So if you think, ‘Oh my gosh, you left this country out,’ that’s because you cannot call a country a foreign terrorist organization by American law. Do your homework unless, of course, you’re in it for the ads and the clicks.”

He emphasized that the administration is “committed to one thing: destroying the Brotherhood, its offshoots and global jihadism writ large — and suppressing it to a point at which it is no longer a strategic threat.”

Some allies of the administration like Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) have said the administration intends to take a “bottom-up” approach to ultimately designate the entire organization.

Gorka said that the Muslim Brotherhood’s antisemitism is a key part of the reason the administration is going after the group.

“Rejection of the Jew is rejection of the West is the rejection of Christianity as well,” Gorka said.

“The Muslim Brotherhood is the progenitor of all modern global jihadism and the propagator, the transmission belt of the most heinous antisemitic Jew hatred today across the region and sadly in America as well,” Gorka continued.

Addressing antisemitism more broadly, Gorka said that some hide their hatred “behind geopolitics.”

“‘I just don’t like the government of [Israeli Prime Minister] Bibi Netanyahu’ — no, you’re a Jew hater, because there’s only one Jewish state,” Gorka continued. “It embeds itself in international organizations, in the curricula of our colleges and universities, in the voices of some who hide behind social media and even openly espouse this ancient poison. Quote, ‘From the river to the sea.’”

Citing the May murder of Israeli Embassy employees Yaron Lischnisky and Sarah Milgrim just minutes away from the conference’s location in the name of anti-Israel ideology, Gorka characterized antisemitism as a serious security threat to the homeland.

Jewish Insider’s senior national correspondent Gabby Deutch contributed reporting.