 "Trump likely to sign executive orders to restructure military, including banning transgender troops")
President Donald Trump on Monday is likely to sign three executive orders aimed at overhauling the military.
According to a CNN report, citing two White House officials, the orders would include banning transgender service members from serving in the US armed forces, eliminating the military’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion programmes, and reinstating service members with backpay who were discharged for refusing to get vaccinated from Covid-19.
The orders, first reported by the New York Post, were issued shortly after Trump’s nominee for secretary of defence Pete Hegseth was sworn in on Saturday.
Hegseth has consistently expressed his intention to implement significant cultural changes within the military, including ending DEI practices and removing “woke” service members.
In 2017, during his first tenure, Trump banned transgender Americans from serving in the military but then-President Joe Biden reversed that ban in 2021.
Just hours after being sworn in for his second term last week, Trump signed an order undoing Biden’s 2021 decision that permitted transgenders to serve.
However, the order Trump is expected to sign on Monday takes things further, according to the CNN report, citing one official, by establishing new military standards concerning gender pronouns and asserting that mental and physical readiness necessitates the exclusion of transgender service members from the military.
“It can take a minimum of 12 months for an individual to complete treatments after transition surgery, which often involves the use of heavy narcotics. 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,” CNN quoted one of the officials as saying, citing a fact sheet.
Impact Shorts
More Shorts“The implementation (of the ban) is on the DoD regarding specifics,” the official said.
In 2018, the Palm Center, an independent research institute focused on sexual minorities in the military, estimated that there were around 14,000 transgender service members in the US military.
A Pentagon memo from Trump’s first term suggested making exceptions for transgender individuals already serving who had enlisted under prior policies before the ban was implemented. It recommended allowances for those who do not require a gender change and those who had been “stable for 36 consecutive months in their biological sex prior to accession,” reported CNN.
It remains unclear whether the administration’s new ban will include similar exceptions.
According to the report, the second executive order bans any “discriminatory” policies related to DEI in the military. The order follows the Trump administration’s directive to place employees in federal diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility offices on paid administrative leave “effective immediately.”
All DEI practices within the US armed forces will also undergo an internal review led by Hegseth, added the report.
The third executive order instructs Hegseth to reinstate all active and reserve service members who were discharged for refusing the COVID-19 vaccine. They will be reinstated at their previous rank and receive back pay and benefits, according to the CNN report_,_ citing one official.
However, the Pentagon had already lifted the military’s COVID-19 vaccination mandate, allowing these service members to return after Biden signed the 2023 National Defense Authorization Act requiring this change.
CNN reported in October 2023 that only 43 of the over 8,000 US service members discharged for refusing vaccination sought to rejoin the military eight months after the mandate was officially repealed.
With inputs from agencies
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