Donald Trump is planning an immediate blanket ban on transgender servicemen and women when he shuffles back into the White House on January 20.
One of his first tasks as President 2.0 will be to fire off an executive order removing transgender people from all ranks of the U.S. military, according to an exclusive report in the The Times.
His move harks back to a controversial order in his first administration when he banned the transgender community from entering the military but allowed existing trans members to stay.
President Joe Biden reversed Trump’s ban at the beginning of his term.
This time, even loyal service personal with decades of service will be given the chop, sources told The Times of London.
The order could come on Trump’s first day back in the White House.
About 2,200 service members had been diagnosed with gender dysphoria in 2021, when Trump’s first ban was lifted. There are about 1.3 million active duty personnel in the military.
There are believed to be about 15,000 active service personnel who are transgender. Under Trump’s reported move, they would be medically discharged, which would determine that they were unfit to serve.
Trump, 78, has railed against “woke” practices in the military, saying that some high-ranking officers are often more interested in diversity, equity and inclusion than planning to fight.
Trump spoke of “transgender craziness” and “transgender fanatics” at a campaign rally in Virginia in on November 2.
He has nominated Pete Hegseth, 44, the Fox News personality who is facing sexual assault allegations, to run the Pentagon.
Hegseth is a former major in the U.S. National Guard and has bemoaned “weak” and “effeminate” leadership in the military and asserted that the “the next commander in chief will need to clean house.”
He has also spoken of “trans lunacy.”
“Should a trans ban be implemented from day one of the Trump administration it would undermine the readiness of the military and create an even greater recruitment and retention crisis, not to mention signalling vulnerability to America’s adversaries,” Rachel Branaman, executive director of Modern Military Association of America, which campaigns on behalf of LGBTQ+ military personnel and veterans, told The Times.
“Abruptly discharging 15,000-plus service members, especially given that the military’s recruiting targets fell short by 41,000 recruits last year, adds administrative burdens to war fighting units, harms unit cohesion, and aggravates critical skill gaps.
“There would be a significant financial cost, as well as a loss of experience and leadership that will take possibly 20 years and billions of dollars to replace.”
The newspaper also quoted Paulo Batista, a transgender analyst in the U.S. Navy. They told the outlet that Trump’s proposed ban would end their career—and would do the same for thousands more.
“I have four years left on my contract,” Batista told the paper. “But you take 15,000 of us out — there’s more but that’s the number that is always mentioned — that’s 15,000 leadership positions, every one of us play a vital role.”
