US President Donald Trump has signed an executive order to revise the Pentagon’s policy on transgender troops, among other things. The move seeks a ban on transgender people serving in the military.
The US president has signed an executive order that directs Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to revise the Pentagon’s policy on transgender troops.
The decree late on Monday appears likely to preempt a future ban on their military service.
At the same time, US President Donald Trump signed other orders that reinstated troops who had left voluntarily or been fired for refusing COVID-19 vaccines.
Trump also outlined new rollbacks in diversity programs and ordered the deployment of a space-based missile defense shield for the US.
The orders came as Trump welcomed Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth into post.
What we know about the proposed ban
Trump’s widely expected order largely sets the stage for a future ban, directing Hegseth to work out how it might be implemented in policy.
The order claims that service by troops identifying by a gender other than their biological one “conflicts with a soldier’s commitment to an honorable, truthful, and disciplined lifestyle, even in one’s personal life” and is harmful to military readiness, requiring a revised policy to address the matter.”
Trump tried to ban transgender troops during his first term but was met with legal battles for years before his order was overturned shortly after then-President Joe Biden took office.
“To ensure that we have the most lethal fighting force in the world, we will get transgender ideology the hell out of our military,” Trump told a Republican congressional event in Miami.
The order said that “adoption of a gender identity inconsistent with an individual’s sex conflicts with a soldier’s commitment to an honorable, truthful, and disciplined lifestyle, even in one’s personal life.”
The presidential orders came at the start of Trump’s second week back in the White House as he welcomed into post his new defense secretary, military veteran and Fox News personality Pete Hegseth.
Transgender troops in the US have faced changing policies on military service in recent years, with Democratic administrations seeking to allow them to serve openly and Trump seeking to keep them out of the ranks.
A ban on transgender troops serving in the armed forces was lifted in 2016, while Democrat Barack Obama was still in his second term as president.
Although the number of transgender troops in the American military is fairly small, their dismissal would diminish US forces as the country struggles to recruit new personnel.
Transgender issues have been a hot topic in US politics in recent years, with states controlled by Democrats and Republicans moving in opposite directions on policies ranging from medical treatment to teaching materials in schools and books in libraries.
What else is in the order?
Trump also promised to build a version of Israel’s Iron Dome system used to shoot down missiles fired by Hamas from Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon — a plan that might need some tweaking.
Israel’s system is more suited to staving off closer-range threats than intercontinental ballistic attacks that pose the most threat to the continental United States.
In addition, the executive order directs the “full reinstatement” of more than 8,000 troops forced out of the military in 2021 for refusing to obey an order to receive the COVID-19 vaccine.
Few — only 113 — have reenlisted since notices advising them they could return were sent out in 2023, but more could do so now with the possibility of back pay for the time they were out of the military.
The reinstatement process also requires that returnees meet military entry standards.
Trump’s order also abolishes all initiatives and mentions of diversity, equity and inclusion in the Defense Department.
The order seeks to delete “any vestiges” of such initiatives aiming to “promote a race-based preferences system that subverts meritocracy, perpetuates unconstitutional discrimination, and promotes divisive concepts or gender ideology.”
