While President-elect Donald Trump has made no comments on the topic, a new report claims he will be banning transgender members from the military.
According to claims by The Times, Trump “is planning an executive order that would lead to the removal of all transgender members of the US military” and the move could come on his first day in office on January 20, 2025.
Noting that this could affect about 15,000 active service personnel who are transgender, the UK paper noted the troops “would be medically discharged, which would determine that they were unfit to serve.”
“These people will be forced out at a time when the military can’t recruit enough people,” according to a source cited by the outlet. “Only the Marine Corps is hitting its numbers for recruitment and some people who will be affected are in very senior positions.”
The report comes after Trump nominated former Fox News host Pete Hegseth to lead the Department of Defense. Hegseth is a combat veteran who was awarded two Bronze Stars for his service. He has said he would focus on “wokeness” in the military if he is confirmed to lead.
“I think our biggest threat is internal. I think we’re committing cultural suicide, and we’ve lost complete focus on the basics and building blocks of what made Western civilization in America exceptional, fruitful, prosperous, strong, free,” Hegseth said recently on the “Shawn Ryan Show” podcast, calling for a “frontal assault right back at what’s been done to this military from the top and to the bottom.”
Rachel Branaman, executive director of Modern Military Association of America, told The Times, “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.”
“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,” she added. “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.”
US Air Force non-commissioned officer told the outlet: “There are very few members of my career field with this experience, and in the event of a large-scale contingency, it would be difficult to replace the level of experience that I bring to the table.”
Paulo Batista, a transgender analyst in the Navy, claimed the Pentagon is not covering the “spiralling costs” of gender treatment for transgenders in the military.
“There is no money being spent, it’s just continued care,” he said. “People enlisting are just slightly hormone deficient, but the bigger picture is how many other people are going to be affected. Kicking out the 15,000 would affect the whole fleet, the whole battalion. It’s everyone.”
But the Daily Mail reported that in May, “it was revealed the Pentagon has spent more than $26million treating transgender troops since 2020, official records show.”
“The number of US army staff with gender dysphoria has doubled in that time — from around 1,800 to 3,700, according to DoD data seen by DailyMail.com,” the outlet noted. “In the past three years, $17.5m in taxpayer money was spent on psychotherapy for trans service people and $1.5m went towards hormone drugs. A further $7.6m funded gender-affirming surgeries, including facial tweaks to make a recruit more masculine or feminine, and the removal or creation of breasts and genitals.”
