President Donald Trump has rescinded a Biden administration-era order allowing transgender people to serve in the military.
After taking the oath of office on Monday, the new president signed an order in 2021 revoking former President Joe Biden's order allowing all eligible Americans to serve their country in uniform. Signed.
During the campaign, Trump promised to reinstate a ban on transgender soldiers that he imposed during his first term. In his inaugural address, he officially recognized that there are only two genders: male and female.
There are an estimated 9,000 to 14,000 transgender service members.
The new executive order was part of a series of moves by President Trump to reverse Biden's policies. In a statement, the White House accused diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) efforts across the federal government of “corrupting hard work, merit, and equality by replacing them with dangerously divisive hierarchies of favoritism.”
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President Donald Trump has rescinded a Biden administration-era order allowing transgender people to serve in the military. (Greg Nash/Pool/AFP via Getty Images)
The move comes as part of a campaign by President Trump and Defense Secretary nominee Pete Hegseth to eliminate DEI practices across the U.S. military.
Last week, President Trump nominated Matthew Lohmeyer to be the next deputy secretary of the Air Force. In 2021, as a lieutenant colonel in the Space Force, Lohmeyer was fired for criticizing the military's diversity program and claiming there was “Marxism” within the military.
Lohmeyer self-published a book called “Irresistible Revolution: Marxist Aims of Conquest and the Dismantling of the American Military,'' and appeared on a podcast in which Marxism, a commitment to diversity, and critical race theory led to the military's dismantling. He claimed that he was becoming weaker.
During his campaign, President Donald Trump promised to reinstate a ban on transgender soldiers that he imposed during his first term. (Photo by: Hedir Amir/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)
Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Ala.), chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, praised the move, saying, “By ending the woke DEI program, we have already restored the focus on lethality in our military. “
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Monday's action is part of a broader Republican crackdown on transgenderism in the military. Republican lawmakers successfully inserted an amendment into the 2025 Defense Policy Act that would ban irreversible transgender care for minors in the military health care system.
The move comes as part of a campaign by President Donald Trump and Pentagon chief nominee Pete Hegseth to eliminate DEI practices across the U.S. military. (AP)
An order requiring the federal government to recognize only two genders will remove taxpayer funds for “transgender services” following reports that some prisoners are receiving government-funded transgender care. Use prohibited. Medicaid currently covers these treatments in some states.
The order also requires federal prisons and shelters for immigrants and rape victims to be segregated by biological sex. This would block requirements that transgender people be referred to by their gender-appropriate pronouns in government facilities and workplaces. Mr. Trump's team argues that these requirements violate First Amendment freedoms of speech and religion.
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The order does not impose nationwide mandates on which bathrooms transgender people can use or which sports events they can participate in, although many states have passed laws in these areas.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
