Trump team dismisses 'speculating' about reported trans military ban
'No decisions on this issue have been made'
A spokesperson for President-elect Donald Trump pushed back against a report that the incoming administration plans to bar trans-identifying individuals from military service.
"No decisions on this issue have been made. No policy should ever be deemed official unless it comes directly from President Trump or his authorized spokespeople," incoming White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said, according to Newsweek.
Leavitt's clarification came after The Times, a newspaper in the United Kingdom, reported Monday that Trump was planning an executive order that would "kick transgender troops out of U.S. military," citing unnamed defense sources.
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The supposed executive order would medically discharge the approximately 15,000 trans-identifying service members, according to The Times.
The order would also reportedly bar trans-identifying people from joining the armed services, which the outlet noted comes as the U.S. military is facing a recruitment shortfall.
Former President Barack Obama's administration was the first to open military service to trans-identifying people, though Trump instituted a ban in 2018 that President Joe Biden later rescinded in 2021.
Rachel Branaman, who serves as executive director of Modern Military Association of America, claimed that such a ban would indicate weakness to the enemies of the U.S. Her charity advocates for LGBT-identifying service members.
"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 signaling vulnerability to America's adversaries," she 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 war fighting units," 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."
The controversy over Trump's supposed planned executive order comes as Pete Hegseth, his nominee for secretary of defense, has expressed opposition to women in combat.
Hegseth, who served as an infantry officer in the Army National Guard and was deployed to Afghanistan, Iraq and Guantanamo Bay, recently said on "The Shawn Ryan Show" podcast that the presence of women makes high-stress combat situations more dangerous.
"Everything about men and women serving together makes the situation more complicated, and complication in combat means casualties are worse," he said. "I'm straight up just saying that we should not have women in combat roles — it hasn't made us more effective, hasn't made us more lethal, has made fighting more complicated."
Trump has expressed his intention to remove military leadership who have drifted too far into what he has described as a "woke" mentality.
"I would fire them. You can’t have woke military," Trump said in a Fox News interview in June.
Jon Brown is a reporter for The Christian Post. Send news tips to [email protected]
