Donald Trump directed the military to cancel plans to allow transgender people to serve openly in the military and banned the Department of Defense from providing medical treatment to any currently serving transgender troops.
Trump also directed the departments of Defense and Homeland Security “to determine how to address transgender individuals currently serving based on military effectiveness and lethality, unitary cohesion, budgetary constraints, applicable law, and all factors that may be relevant,” a White House official told CNN.
The official wouldn’t say whether service members who had come out would be allowed to continue to serve their country.
President Trump tweeted out his surprise decision to ban transgender people from the military in July as pressure mounted surrounding his campaign’s possible collusion with Russia. It was reported that Trump sold out the transgender community after a handful of conservative Republicans threatened to withhold funding for his long promised border wall unless he refused to fund medical treatment for transgender soliders.
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