Claim that Trump will ban all trans people from military dismissed as ‘speculation’ by spokesperson
A Trump spokesperson has addressed claims that he plans to remove trans personnel from the military. (Wiktor S/Future Publishing via Getty Images)
An official spokesperson for Donald Trump says that sources are merely “speculating” that the president-elect will remove all trans people from the US military.
Last week, “defence sources” and a “source familiar with Trump’s plans,” told The Times that the president-elect would sign an order to reintroduce his ban on transgender people serving in the military.
It would have seen as many as 15,000 people being discharged immediately after Trump takes office on 20 January, and being branded as “unfit” for their roles.
However, Trump campaign national press secretary Karoline Leavitt told The Epoch Times on Saturday (30 November) that these claims are based on “speculation.”
Leavitt said: “These unnamed sources are speculating and have no idea what they are actually talking about.
“No policy should ever be deemed official unless it comes directly from President Trump or his authorised spokespeople.”
Such a ban would not be far-fetched, though. Trump’s first transgender military ban was first imposed in 2019 before being overturned by President Joe Biden in 2021. It prevented transgender people from serving in the military, a policy which was described as “harmful” and “backwards”.
Trump vowed to restore the legislation while campaigning for the presidency earlier this year. “I will ban the Department of Veterans Affairs from wasting a single cent to fund transgender surgeries or sex-change procedures,” he said.
“Those precious taxpayer dollars should be going to care for our veterans in need, not to refund radical gender experiments for the communist left. I’ll also restore the ban on transgender in the military… We had it banned.”
Retired British army major-general Jonathan Shaw, who commanded NATO troops in Kosovo and British army personnel in Iraq, has responded to the reported ban.
Shaw told LBC’s Nick Ferrari on 25 November: “It’s very simple, there’s only one test that makes sense and that’s whether they are good at their job: are they good at combat efficiency?
“If you are in a foxhole, you want the [person] next to you to be good at their job. If they are good at their job, that’s good enough for me.”
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