DeSantis Declares Total War on the Muslim Brotherhood!

By Angélique Bouchard

“America First” runs through Tallahassee: decoding a political and geopolitical thunderclap

On December 8, 2025, at 10:23 p.m., Ron DeSantis posted on X a four-page document bearing three words in capital letters at the top: EFFECTIVE IMMEDIATELY.
With a single signature, Florida designated the Muslim Brotherhood and the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) as foreign terrorist organizations on its territory. Texas had opened the breach three weeks earlier; Florida has now turned it into a tectonic fault line.

This is not a routine gubernatorial order. It is the first time a U.S. state of this size has publicly declared that political Islamism—even when it speaks with a Washington accent, wears a three-piece suit, and claims the language of civil rights—constitutes a systemic threat. The text does not merely target Hamas or Al-Qaeda. It strikes at the ideological root and its most structured civil relay in the United States.

The message is crystal clear: the distinction maintained for thirty years by the State Department between “violent” Islamism to be fought and “moderate” Islamism to be engaged has now been officially deemed obsolete by two of the five most populous states in the country. And this is only the beginning.

The constitutional framework: absolute and incontestable federal preemption

At the heart of the dispute lies the principle of federal preemption, enshrined in Article VI of the U.S. Constitution (the Supremacy Clause), which affirms the supremacy of federal law over state law in matters of foreign policy and national security. The designation of an organization as a “foreign terrorist organization” (FTO) is an exclusive power of the Secretary of State, governed by Section 219 of the Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. § 1189). This statute authorizes only the State Department to determine whether a foreign entity meets the criteria for terrorism—support for violent acts, threat to national security, and so on—after a minimal adversarial process.

Case law on this point is unequivocal. In Zschernig v. Miller (1968), the Supreme Court invalidated an Oregon state law that interfered with foreign relations by discriminating against foreign heirs, holding that states may not conduct their own foreign policy. Closer to the present issue, Crosby v. National Foreign Trade Council (2000) struck down a Massachusetts law sanctioning trade with Burma, on the grounds that only Congress and the federal executive may regulate international sanctions. Likewise, American Insurance Association v. Garamendi (2003) invalidated a California law imposing obligations on European insurers related to the Holocaust, for encroaching on the President’s foreign policy prerogatives.

Applied to DeSantis’s order, this body of jurisprudence is devastating. Florida cannot create a parallel terrorist list without violating federal preemption. The Texas precedent—the Abbott proclamation of November 18, 2025, enjoined by preliminary injunction on December 3 by federal judge David Ezra (Southern District of Texas)—perfectly illustrates the mechanism. In CAIR v. Abbott, the judge ruled unambiguously:

“The State of Texas does not have the authority to designate foreign terrorist organizations. That power is exclusively federal.”

The Eleventh Circuit, which covers Florida, will apply the same reasoning. A preliminary injunction is virtually certain once CAIR files suit, expected within days.

What the order really says

The Florida text goes further than its Texas counterpart. It orders all state agencies (law enforcement, education, public finance) to deny any privilege, contract, grant, or even simple room rental to anyone providing “material support”—donations, dues, lodging, communications—to the Muslim Brotherhood or CAIR. It creates a registry of affiliates transmitted to the Department of Homeland Security. It purports to align Florida law with Section 219 of the Immigration and Nationality Act, as if the state could substitute itself for the Secretary of State.

Legally, it is smoke and mirrors: federal preemption is absolute, the First Amendment will be invoked, due process is trampled. The order will be suspended before the end of January 2026, just as Texas’s was on December 3. Everyone knows this, including its author. And that is precisely where the political genius of the operation lies.

A programmed judicial defeat, a total strategic victory

By losing in court, Ron DeSantis wins on three fronts.

First, he forces Donald Trump’s hand. If the president inaugurated on January 20, 2026 does not place the Muslim Brotherhood on the federal FTO list in the first quarter, he will appear weaker than two governors. The trap is flawless.

Second, he turns the inevitable federal injunction into an electoral weapon. The moment the first judge—likely appointed by Obama or Biden—suspends the order, the slogan is ready-made: “Liberal judges protect Islamists.” This narrative will fuel the 2026 midterms and the 2028 Republican primary.

Finally, he normalizes the issue. Even invalidated, the order will have injected into public debate an idea previously confined to pro-Israel think tanks and classified briefings: CAIR is not a civil rights organization like the ACLU or the NAACP; it is the civilian extension of a transnational network of which Hamas is merely the armed wing.

Violations of fundamental liberties: the First Amendment and due process on the front line

The First Amendment protects freedom of speech and association, prohibiting state measures that punish membership in a group absent proof of individual criminal intent.
In Holder v. Humanitarian Law Project (2010), the Supreme Court upheld bans on “material support” to federal FTOs, but only when narrowly tailored and proportionate, with an intentional link to terrorism. The Florida order, by punishing mere material support without prior procedure, creates a massive chilling effect: an innocent donor could be prosecuted for a check written to a mosque affiliated with CAIR, without any prior opportunity to defend themselves.

Moreover, the total absence of due process violates the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments. Even for a federal FTO designation, the law provides a 30-day window to challenge it (8 U.S.C. § 1189(b)). Here, there is nothing: the order takes effect immediately, with no hearing and no administrative appeal. Precedents such as People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran v. Department of State (D.C. Cir., 2001–2004) overturned federal designations for procedural defects; a state order, even more fragile, will not survive. CAIR, backed by the ACLU and other civil liberties NGOs, will file an emergency complaint alleging these violations.

CAIR’s rhetorical suicide

The statement released the same evening is a masterpiece of self-destruction. By labeling Ron DeSantis an “Israel First politician” and accusing Israel of “war crimes,” CAIR definitively abandons any claim to represent all American Muslims.
It positions itself as the exclusive spokesperson for a foreign cause. Exactly the gift its adversaries have been waiting for over twenty years.

Recent judicial dynamics: toward federal consolidation?

The cases of 2025 reinforce this analysis. Trump’s Executive Order 14362 (November 24, 2025), initiating the designation of Muslim Brotherhood chapters as FTOs, underscores federal exclusivity. Likewise, the designation of Mexican cartels as FTOs (Federal Register, January 29, 2025) and of Antifa as a domestic terrorist organization (September 2025) were all handled at the federal level, deliberately avoiding state interference so as not to dilute national authority.

If the Florida case reaches the Supreme Court—likely on appeal, given the 6–3 conservative majority—it could set a major precedent. Chief Justice Roberts or Justice Kavanaugh, both sensitive to federalism, may nonetheless rule in favor of preemption to avoid legal chaos (50 competing state lists). An extreme scenario: a unanimous decision invalidating the order, reinforcing federal exclusivity and weakening future state initiatives on issues such as sanctions against China or Iran.

Outlook: a judicial battle with high political risk

In the short term (January–March 2026), a preliminary injunction is inevitable, freezing the order and allowing CAIR to continue operating. An appeal to the Eleventh Circuit could extend uncertainty into the summer, but with a low probability of success for DeSantis (under 20%).
In the medium term (2026–2028), if Trump federalizes the designation of the Muslim Brotherhood, Florida could argue that its text “reflects” national policy, but that will not erase the initial constitutional violations.

The societal stakes are enormous: a CAIR victory could galvanize pro-Palestinian movements, while a prolonged defeat of the order could radicalize part of the Republican base, accusing “activist judges.”
For DeSantis, a potential 2028 candidate, this is a risky bet: judicial failure could brand him an ineffective extremist; partial validation would position him as a visionary.

Conclusion: a political time bomb

In conclusion, the judicial stakes transcend the order itself. They test the limits of American federalism in the face of the perceived threat of transnational Islamism. If Florida loses—as is likely—it will reinforce federal exclusivity and protect associational freedoms.
But the real gain will be political: DeSantis will have forced a national debate, turning a judicial defeat into leverage for a more security-oriented America. A case to watch closely, as it may redraw the constitutional contours of counterterrorism in the United States.

In Cairo, Riyadh, and Abu Dhabi, no triumphalist statement is needed. The message has been received. Since 2013, these regimes have repeated the same sentence in every chancery: you cannot fight terrorism while legitimizing its ideological matrix. On December 8, 2025, two American states proved them right. Qatar and Turkey, by contrast, are in shock. Their main civilian lever of influence in the United States has just been criminalized on a territory representing nearly 20% of U.S. GDP.

The most likely scenario is no longer a total federal designation—too judicially risky—but a targeted designation of the Muslim Brotherhood in spring 2026, leaving CAIR formally off the FTO list.

At the same time, around fifteen Republican-led states will adopt similar texts. The result will be a slow but irresistible suffocation: no public contracts, no university grants, massive banking de-risking, and the inability to purchase or lease premises with public funds.

CAIR will survive in blue states, but it will become a regionalized, marginalized organization, and above all definitively perceived as toxic. That is already irreversible. Even if the Supreme Court invalidates everything in 2027, three things will not be erased:

First, the reputational cost. CAIR will forever be “the organization that Florida and Texas labeled terrorist.”
Second, the precedent. Ten states are already preparing their own lists.
Third, the awakening. A growing segment of American public opinion, beyond conservative circles, is beginning to understand that the boundary between armed jihad and political lobbying never existed anywhere except in State Department press releases.

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Angélique Bouchard

Diplômée de la Business School de La Rochelle (Excelia – Bachelor Communication et Stratégies Digitales) et du CELSA – Sorbonne Université, Angélique Bouchard, 25 ans, est titulaire d’un Master 2 de recherche, spécialisation « Géopolitique des médias ». Elle est journaliste indépendante et travaille pour de nombreux médias. Elle est en charge des grands entretiens pour Le Dialogue.