The Pentagon is going to receive important guidance from the White House regarding Donald Trump’s transgender military ban; it includes instructions to reject transgender applicants
The memo’s directions include: the military is to stop admitting transgender people; for current transgender troops, the Pentagon should take into consideration a service member’s ability to deploy when determining whether to expel them.
Moreover, the memo also instructs the Pentagon to stop paying for transgender troops’ medical treatment.
However, it is not clear if the memo is in its final form. The Pentagon declared in a statement on Wednesday night that “has not received formal guidance from the White House as a follow-up to the Commander-in-Chief’s announcement on military service by transgender personnel.”
“The (Defense) Department continues to focus on our mission of defending our nation and ongoing operations against our foes, while ensuring all service members are treated with respect,” the statement said
As soon as the formal guidance is announced, the Pentagon will provide an update.
On July 26, Trump used a string of tweets to say that he would reinstate a ban on transgender troops, announcing that they will no longer be eligible to “serve in any capacity in the U.S. Military.”
What it did is reversed a policy that was initially approved by the Defense Department under President Barack Obama and still and under final review. The policy would have allowed transgender people to openly serve in the military.
“After consultation with my Generals and military experts, please be advised that the United States Government will not accept or allow Transgender individuals to serve in any capacity in the U.S. Military. Our military must be focused on decisive and overwhelming victory and cannot be burdened with the tremendous medical costs and disruption that transgender in the military would entail. Thank you.” Trump wrote
