President Trump tweeted a string of statements on social media Wednesday that had the Internet surging with rage.
He shared on his Twitter account that he wants to ban transgender people from serving in the U.S. military in any capacity—citing advice from his “generals” and “medical costs.”
In a series of tweets, he wrote:
“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” — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 26, 2017.
The president’s tweets came only a few weeks after Defense Secretary James Mattis said he would give military chiefs another six months to conduct a review to determine if allowing transgender individuals to enlist in the armed services will affect the “readiness or lethality” of the force. The deadline for that review was Dec. 1, 2017.
“This is worse than ‘don’t ask don’t tell.’ This is don’t serve, don’t serve,” The National Center for Transgender Equality said in a written statement. “This is an appalling attack on our service members; it is about bigotry rather than military readiness, reason or science. It is indefensible and cannot stand.”
The Family Research Council praised Trump’s action.
“I applaud President Trump for keeping his promise to return to military priorities—and not continue the social experimentation of the Obama era that has crippled our nation’s military,” FRC President Tony Perkins said in a statement. “The military can now focus its efforts on preparing to fight and win wars rather than being used to advance the Obama social agenda.”
