Trump plans to kick transgender troops out of the military, with 15,000 service members ‘medically discharged’ on his first day in office, reports say

President-elect Donald Trump reportedly plans to issue an executive order banning transgender members of the military on his “first day in office.”

The controversial order would result in as many as 15,000 active-duty military personnel being “medically discharged,” making them deemed unfit to serve. according to De Tijd.

Trump is seeking to issue the executive action on Jan. 20, 2025, or Day 1 of his term, the Times said, which would prevent transgender people from joining the military as all branches continue to struggle with recruitment.

The 78-year-old former president has nominated former Fox News host Pete Hegseth to lead the Defense Department and has promised to purge all government agencies of “woke” policies.

Recently, in a podcast interview, Hegseth called the inclusion of transgender people in the service “pushing boundaries.”

He suggested that you can’t integrate transgender people as easily as people of different races were integrated “because being transgender in the military creates complications and differences.”

Hegseth also said that transgender people were ‘unemployable’ because they were ‘dependent on chemicals.’

Trump’s press secretary Karoline Leavitt played down the Times report last night, saying: ‘No decisions have been made on this matter. No policy should ever be considered official unless it comes directly from President Trump or his authorized spokespersons.”

President-elect Donald Trump reportedly plans to issue an executive order banning transgender members of the military on his ‘first day in office’

The controversial order would result in 15,000 active-duty military personnel being “medically discharged,” making them deemed unfit to serve. Pictured: House Speaker Nancy Pelosi speaks with Ian Brown (pictured right), a transgender military major who has transitioned

This is not the first time that Trump has tried to ban transgender people from serving. In 2017, then-President Trump announced in a series of tweets that he would ban transgender people from serving in the military. Hegseth supported the move.

The White House said at the time that detaining troops with a history or diagnosis of “gender dysphoria” — those who may require substantial medical treatment — “poses a significant risk to military effectiveness and lethality.”

Trump said on Twitter at the time that the military “cannot be burdened with the enormous medical costs and disruption that transgender in the military would entail.”

The Obama administration changed long-standing policy and declared that troops could serve openly as transgender individuals.

Since then, the military has been trying to highlight the stories of transgender soldiers.

Major Jason Vero, a transgender pilot, has won multiple awards and honors Air Force said in 2022.

‘In 2017 I experienced a number of tragedies in a short period of time. I felt lost in the ocean with my head barely above water as the waves continued to crash,” said Vero, director of the Joint Base Andrews Air Show.

‘During that period I did a lot of internal reflection and after extensive consultation with my pastor I made the decision to switch.’

In 2022, the Air Force highlighted the contributions of Major Jason Vero, a transgender pilot who has won multiple awards and honors

The following year, the Army celebrated Maj. Rachel Jones, the U.S. Army Sustainment Command’s Cyber ​​Division chief, who said being able to live and serve “authentically” saved her life.

Major Rachel Jones, USA The head of the Army Sustainment Command’s Cyber ​​Division said being able to live and serve “authentically” saved her life.

“I was convinced that I was inherently bad because I was transgender,” Jones said. “The pressure to hide all the time was so great that I grew up so depressed and suicidal that I always had a plan to end my life.”

In May, it was revealed that the Pentagon has spent more than $26 million on treating transgender troops since 2020, official data shows.

The number of U.S. military personnel with gender dysphoria has doubled in that time — from about 1,800 to 3,700, according to DoD data from DailyMail.com.

In the past three years, $17.5 million in taxpayer money was spent on psychotherapy for transgender people and $1.5 million on hormone medications.

Another $7.6 million financed gender confirmation surgeriesincluding facial modifications to make a recruit more masculine or feminine, and the removal or creation of breasts and genitals.

The U.S. military health care system spends approximately $50 billion annually to provide care to 9.6 million active-duty military personnel, retirees and their families through its TRICARE health plans.

According to the website, TRICARE generally does not cover surgeries to treat gender dysphoria, but active duty members “may apply for a waiver for medically necessary gender-affirming surgeries.”

Barack Obama pictured with transgender Staff Sergeant Logan Ireland after the then-president lifted regulations on transgender services in 2016

Transgender U.S. Army National Guard Captain Jacob Eleazer (pictured left) listens to transgender former U.S. Navy nurse Paula Neira (pictured right)

The total number of transgender people within the armed forces is unknown, as it is likely that not all have sought treatment.

But according to DHA spokesperson Peter Graves, 3,700 active-duty military personnel were diagnosed and treated for gender dysphoria as of April 2024.

This includes 1,240 Army soldiers, 1,046 Navy soldiers, 1,024 Air Force airmen and 278 Marine Corps.

They account for 0.3 percent of military personnel, which is lower than the 0.6 percent of transgender people in the United States American population more broadly.

As of 2020, 1,892 service members had been diagnosed and treated for gender dysphoria, including 726 Army soldiers, 576 Navy sailors, 449 Air Force airmen and 141 Marines.

At the time, this accounted for 0.1 percent of the 1,333,822 active duty military personnel.

The increase in gender dysphoria diagnoses is out of balance with the increase in transgender people in the general population, which is attributed to growing acceptance in society.

Since 2020, a range of different gender-affirming procedures have been performed on military personnel, but the most popular has been facial reconstruction surgery.

These are designed to make people look more feminine or masculine and include reshaping the forehead and forehead, jaw and chin contours and removing or creating an Adam’s apple.

The next most popular surgery was a mastectomy, or breast removal, with 192 performed since 2021.

Rarer surgeries include a vaginectomy, an operation to remove all or part of the vagina, a clitoroplasty, a procedure to create a clitoris, and a scrotoplasty – the rearrangement of the labia to create a scrotum.

According to Mayo Clinic, three individuals also completed gender-affirming voice training in 2022, which helps transgender people tailor their voices to communication patterns that match their gender identity.

Two unclassified operations also took place between 2022 and 2023.

Individuals must be at least 17 years old to join the U.S. military.