Trump to ban transgender military on day one of 2025 presidency, affecting thousands

President-elect Donald Trump reportedly intends to sign an executive order on his "first day in office" to bar transgender individuals from serving in the military.

This contentious directive could result in the "medical discharge" of up to 15,000 active service members, categorizing them as unfit for service, as per The Sunday Times. 

The Times reported that Trump plans to enforce this action on January 20, 2025, the first day of his presidency, effectively halting transgender enlistment across all military branches, which are already facing recruitment challenges.

The 78-year-old former president has selected former Fox News host Pete Hegseth as his nominee for Secretary of Defense and has vowed to eliminate "woke" policies from federal agencies.

In a recent podcast interview, Hegseth described the inclusion of transgender individuals in the military as "pushing boundaries."

He remarked, "because being transgendered in the military causes complications and differences." He argued that integrating transgender people was more complex than racial integration.

Hegseth also claimed that transgender service members are "not deployable" due to their "reliance on chemicals."

This is not Trump’s first effort to exclude transgender individuals from military service. In 2017, while serving as president, he announced the ban via a series of tweets. Hegseth expressed his support for the policy at the time.

The White House had justified the 2017 policy by stating that retaining service members with a history of "gender dysphoria," or those requiring significant medical care, posed "considerable risk to military effectiveness and lethality."

Trump tweeted at the time, "the military cannot be burdened with the tremendous medical costs and disruption that transgender in the military would entail."

Under the Obama administration, policies were revised to allow troops to serve openly as transgender individuals.

Since then, the military has sought to bring attention to the experiences of transgender service members.