President Donald Trump has done something that his predecessor Barack Obama refused to do. On Monday, he met with the elected leader of Egypt, Abdel Fatteh el-Sisi. The objective, of the visit, the administration said, is to rebuild relations strained during the Obama years by Egypt’s crackdown on the Muslim Brotherhood.

President Obama embraced the Muslim Brothers. Donald Trump came to office rejecting their agenda and the “radical Islamic terrorism” it spawns.

As our friend, Frank Gaffney, observed in a recent “Secure Freedom Minute” for the Center for Security Policy, President Obama made no secret of his enmity for his Egyptian counterpart. After all, as his country’s senior military officer in 2013, then-General el-Sisi fulfilled the demands of many millions of Egyptians by ending the misrule of the Muslim Brotherhood government led by Mohammed Morsi – a regime Mr. Obama helped bring to power.

Gaffney observes that the Brothers were banished from Egypt in part because they sought to impose their totalitarian Sharia code on millions of secular Egyptians, a goal they seek world-wide.

Egypt is currently in the midst of a proto-civil war with the Brotherhood that is using violence, as well as subversion, to try to take down the elected government of President el-Sisi, who visited the White House on Monday.

Dibie Ike Michael of AfricaNews.com reported that among the points discussed was President el-Sisi’s request that the Muslim Brotherhood be declared a terrorist group by the United States.

As Ambassador John Bolton observed in a recent interview on Breitbart News Daily with SiriusXM host Alex Marlow, “The fact is, the Brotherhood is a front for terrorism…”.

Several Arab majority-Muslim countries, including Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Bahrain, and the United Arab Emirates have already designated the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist organization.

Bolton further noted that “I’ve had Muslim leaders from the Middle East say to me, ‘Are you people blind to what’s going on right in front of you and the role that the Brotherhood performs, really on an international basis?’”

Unfortunately, as far as we can tell there’s been no activity toward fulfilling President el-Sisi’s important request, which we gather is being resisted by some members of President Trump’s national security and foreign policy team.

This is a grave error for many reasons, not the least of which is that the Muslim Brotherhood is actively conducting subversive operations right here, right now in the United States.

And it has been for many years.

What seems lost on those officials inside the bureaucracy that are resisting the designation of the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist organization is that the rise of the Muslim Brotherhood regime in Egypt began with Muslim Brotherhood recruitment and subversion right here in America.

Egypt’s former anti-American president, Mohammed Morsi, (overthrown in a popular uprising led by then-General el-Sisi) joined the Muslim Brotherhood back in the 1980s after being recruited into the Muslim Students Association (MSA) while studying at the University of Southern California right here in America.

We know, just like the Communists of the twentieth century, the Muslim Brotherhood is operating in the United States, and recruiting high level operatives such as Morsi and a number of American Muslims who eventually gained influence in the Obama administration.

Here are just a few examples of the penetration by the Muslim Brotherhood of the US government, and in particular the Obama administration, compiled by our friend, former career operations officer with the Central Intelligence Agency, Clare M. Lopez:

Huma Abedin, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s Deputy Chief of Staff, who served her in various capacities since first coming to the White House as an intern in 1996, while a student at George Washington University in Washington DC (where she was a member of the MSA Executive Board). For decades, she and members of her immediate family — mother, father, brother, and sister — have been closely associated with individuals among the top ranks of the Muslim Brotherhood, al-Qa’eda financial support organizations, and the Saudi royal family. The most troubling associate of the Abedin family, however, is Abdullah Omar Nasseef, a senior Muslim Brotherhood leadership figure and Saudi royal family insider with direct connections to financial entities implicated in pre-9/11 funding of al-Qa’eda.

Rashad Hussain, was the Obama administration’s envoy to the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC). Hussain’s background is replete with Muslim Brotherhood associations, including the American Muslim Council (founded by al-Qa’eda and Muslim Brotherhood operative, Abdurahman Alamoudi); the IIIT (which is on the Brotherhood’s own list of “our friends and the organizations of our friends”); and the Muslim Students Association (MSA, the original Brotherhood front group in the U.S. that recruited former Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi).

Eboo Patel, Obama Administration Advisory Council on Faith-Based Neighborhood Partnerships, spoke at a Muslim Students Association and ISNA convention, appeared on a panel alongside Tariq Ramadan, grandson of the Muslim Brotherhood’s founder, and Siraj Wahhaj, who was named as a possible co-conspirator in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing and has defended the convicted World Trade Center bombers. Wahhaj also allegedly advocates the Islamic takeover of America.

Given the long history of Muslim Brotherhood activity in this country, and its declared objective to “destroy the Western civilization from within,” and the extensive evidence of successful influence operations at the highest levels of the U.S. government, documented by Clare Lopez and others, it is urgent that President Trump recognize this clear and present danger that threatens not only our Republic, but the values of Western civilization and declare the Muslim Brotherhood a terrorist organization.