Donald Trump is expected to sign an executive order that would remove transgender service members from the military as soon as his first day in office.
The president-elect is reportedly preparing to issue an order following his inauguration on January 20 that would effectively ban trans people serving in the military — and then medically discharge the thousands of currently serving trans service members in the armed forces.
In his first term in office, Trump declared that the US would no longer “accept or allow” trans people in the military, citing “tremendous medical costs and disruption,” he tweeted in 2017. The ban took effect in 2019.
President Joe Biden reversed that policy, which was the subject of several lawsuits. Now, Trump is expected to immediately rescind Biden’s order and go further by ejecting currently-serving trans troops, according to The Times, citing sources familiar with the president-elect’s plans.
The executive action is among a stack of orders the president-elect is planning to issue as soon as he re-enters the White House, including sweeping actions on immigration, all of which are expected to draw significant legal battles.
“These unnamed sources are speculating and have no idea what they are actually talking about. No decisions on this issue have been made,” Trump transition spokesperson and incoming White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement shared with The Independent. “No policy should ever be deemed official unless it comes directly from President Trump or his authorized spokespeople.”
Throughout his campaign, which joined Republican groups in spending tens of millions of dollars on anti-trans attack ads targeting people who make up less than 1 per cent of the nation’s population, Trump pledged to revoke vital civil rights protections for LGBT+ people and block trans students from playing sports or using bathrooms that align with their gender identities. He also intends to ban gender-affirming healthcare for trans youth nationwide.
Republicans have filed hundreds of state-level anti-trans bills, and within days after the 2024 elections, GOP members of Congress have spent hours vilifying and misgendering trans people, including the first-ever trans member of Congress, while pushing new legislation to block trans people from bathrooms across the country.
The Republican Party’s 2024 platform lists “Keep Men Out of Women Sports” among its most important priorities.
Pete Hegseth, Trump’s nominee to lead the Department of Defense, who will be in charge of 3 million service members and civilian staff around the world, supported Trump’s previous ban on trans service members, and has baselessly asserted that trans people are “not deployable” and cause “complications.”
There are roughly 15,000 trans people serving in the nation’s armed forces at a time when branches are suffering from recruitment shortfalls.
“These people will be forced out at a time when the military can’t recruit enough people,” a source familiar with Trump’s plans told The Times.
Banning trans people from the military “would undermine the readiness of the military and create an even greater recruitment and retention crisis, not to mention signaling vulnerability to America’s adversaries,” Rachel Branaman, executive director of Modern Military Association of America, said.
“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 warfighting units, harms unit cohesion, and aggravates critical skill gaps,” she said. “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.”
Paulo Batista, a transgender analyst in the Navy, said that a ban would have a ripple effect through the armed services.
“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,” he said.
The Independent has requested comment from Trump’s transition team.
