U.S. President-elect Donald Trump is preparing an executive order to expel all transgender soldiers from the U.S. military, the British daily The Times reported on the 25th local time, citing multiple Pentagon sources.
According to an executive order being prepared, Trump plans to discharge active transgender soldiers currently serving in the U.S. military from the army because they are unfit for military service due to illness and other reasons, and ban transgender people from joining the military.
The executive order could be announced on Jan. 20 next year when Trump takes office as president, sources said.
Trump has slammed the so-called progressive "work" culture in the military, which they have promoted, saying that some senior officers in the U.S. military are more interested in diversity than the combat power of the military.
Fox News host Pete Hegseth, who was nominated for secretary of defense in Trump's second administration, also fully agrees with Trump, accusing the military of helping transgender soldiers as an example of "trans madness" and arguing that "weak and feminine" leadership should be eradicated within the military.
Pentagon sources feared that the forced departure of an estimated 15,000 active-duty transgender soldiers from the military could intensify the shortage of U.S. troops already struggling to recruit.
Earlier in 2017, Trump issued an executive order banning transgender people from serving in the military in the first term of the administration, but Democratic President Joe Biden reversed the move shortly after taking office.
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