WASHINGTON (NewsNation) – President Donald Trump is expected to reshape the U.S. military with a raft of executive orders Monday, including banning transgender service members and ending diversity, equity and inclusion – or DEI – programs, according to the White House.
The executive orders come days after Trump’s nominee to lead the Pentagon, Pete Hegseth, was sworn in as Secretary of Defense. Hegseth has vowed to restore “the warrior ethos” to the military, which he has claimed was weakened by “woke issues.”
Trump is set to issue an executive order abolishing all DEI programs within the armed forces as a way to “restore merritt and lethality to America’s fighting force.” This executive order directs the Pentagon’s new leader to conduct an internal review of all instances of race- or sex-based discrimination based on DEI initiatives, a White House fact sheet obtained by NewsNation said.
In a social media post foreshadowing the upcoming announcement, Hegseth wrote on X: “The President’s guidance (lawful orders) is clear: No more DEI at the Department of Defense. The Pentagon will comply, immediately.”
The White House says this order will “combat ideologies that seek to divide our Armed Forces by race, sex or other immutable characteristics and this tear at cohesion and military efficacy.”
A second executive order will ban transgender service members from the U.S. military.
The Department of Defense will update its guidance regarding trans-identifying medical standards for military service in order to ensure it prioritizes “readiness and lethality,” the White House said. “On the battlefield there can be no accommodation for anything less than resilience, strength, and the ability to withstand extraordinary physical demands.”
According to the fact sheet, the White House argues it can take a minimum of 12 months for an individual to complete treatments after transition surgery – during this period, they are not “physically capable of meeting military readiness requirements and require ongoing medical care. This is not conducive for deployment or other readiness requirements.”
Trump issued a similar ban during his first term that barred transgender troops from serving, which former President Joe Biden rescinded.
In 2019 – the most recent figures available – the Department of Defense estimated that approximately 8,000 transgender individuals served on active duty in the military.
The third executive order will reinstate all members of the military – active and reserve – who were discharged for refusing the COVID-19 vaccine. Those who are reinstated will receive their former rank and full back pay with benefits.
From 2021 to 2023, over 8,000 troops were discharged due to their COVID-19 vaccination status.
