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Donald Trump reportedly plans to ban transgender individuals from serving in the US military, potentially discharging 15,000 active service members, a report has suggested.
Donald Trump (Photo: AFP)
US President-elect Donald Trump will likely remove all transgender members from the US military soon after he returns to the White House. According to a report with The Times, Trump will sign an order on the same, which would lead as many as 15,000 people, believed to be transgenders, out of their posts.
Quoting defence sources, the report suggested the order could be signed on Trump’s first day at the White House, which would be January 20. The order would also ban the transgenders from joining the military in the future.
The transgenders would be medically discharged, determining that they are unfit to serve, the report stated.
Before the US elections, during one of his campaigns, Trump had pledged to restore the name of a Confederate general to a major US military base.
Trump’s strongest anti-woke messaging during the campaign took aim at transgender troops.
On previous occasions too, Trump banned transgender service members and posted a campaign ad on X portraying them as weak, with the vow that “WE WILL NOT HAVE A WOKE MILITARY!”
Trump also suggested the US military could play an important role in many of his policy priorities, from tapping National Guard and possibly active-duty troops to help carry out a mass deportation of undocumented immigrants to even deploying them to address domestic unrest.
Such proposals alarm military experts, who say deploying the military on American streets could not only violate laws but turn much of the American population against the still widely respected US armed forces.
