Donald Trump to ban transgender troops and military diversity programmes in new executive orders

27 January 2025, 20:21

Trump will step up his attacks on diversity measures with new executive orders that will axe the programmes from the US military, ban transgender troops and reinstate thousands of troops kicked out for refusing Covid vaccines.

Trump is set to sign the new orders on Monday, according to his new defense secretary Pete Hegseth, who was sworn in today.

Hegseth, a controversial figure who was narrowly confirmed after Vice President JD Vance broke a 50-50 tie in the Senate, informed reporters of the move on Monday.

"There are more executive orders coming," Hegseth said on his first full day of work at the Pentagon.

While one order will remove DEI initiatives, a second is thought to overhaul the military’s policies on transgender people, including directives on pronouns and gender identity, and a third will reinstate military personnel who were removed for refusing COVID-19 vaccines during the pandemic.

Hegseth told reporters the orders would be geared towards “removing DEI inside the Pentagon, reinstating troops who were pushed out because of COVID mandates, Iron Dome for America — this is happening quickly.”

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A White House document seen by the New York Post says that the orders will directly prohibit thousands of transgender service members, citing problems with mental and physical readiness to serve in the military.

There can be “no accommodation for anything less than resilience, strength, and the ability to withstand extraordinary physical demands,” the document is thought to say.

Trump and his administration have repeatedly attacked diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives, as well as transgender people.

On his first day as president, he signed an order mandating the federal government to only recognise two genders - male and female, which he said would “henceforth be the official policy of the United States government”.

A separate order halted DEI programmes, directing the White House to identify and end them within government departments.

Pete Hegseth has been the subject of controversy, with many of his critics claiming he lacks critical experience needed for his role as the Secretary of Defence.

His unusually narrow confirmation came after questions from members in both parties over Hegseth's qualifications to lead the military, especially amid allegations of heavy alcohol use and aggressive behaviour towards women.

It is not immediately clear what the order halting DEI initiatives in the military will look like once it is signed, but the order ending those programmes in the government has already had far-reaching consequences.

Without clear instructions on how the executive order worked, government departments took broad strokes in removing any content that might violate the directive.

This included videos of the Tuskegee Airmen, a mainly African-American group of army pilots who played an important part in the Second World War, which the US Air Force removed from their training materials to comply with the order.

The Air Force then reinstated the courses as the decision caused an uproar.