WASHINGTON (NewsNation) — President Donald Trump signed a barrage of executive orders Monday that will shake up the U.S. military, including a ban on transgender service members and ending diversity, equity and inclusion — or DEI — programs.
The flurry of executive action was signed while Trump was aboard Air Force One en route to Washington, DC.
The orders came days after Trump’s nominee to lead the Pentagon, Pete Hegseth, was sworn in as Secretary of Defense. Hegseth has vowed to restore “the warrior ethos” to the military, which he has claimed has been weakened by “woke issues.”
Trump issued an executive order abolishing all DEI programs within the armed forces as a way to “restore merit and lethality to America’s fighting force.” This executive order directs the Pentagon’s new leader to conduct an internal review of all instances of “race- or sex-based discrimination” based on DEI initiatives, a White House fact sheet obtained by NewsNation said.
In a social media post foreshadowing the announcement, Hegseth wrote on X: “The President’s guidance (lawful orders) is clear: No more DEI at the Department of Defense. The Pentagon will comply, immediately.”
The White House says this order will “combat ideologies that seek to divide our Armed Forces by race, sex or other immutable characteristics and thus tear at cohesion and military efficacy.”
A second executive order will ban transgender service members from the U.S. military.
The Department of Defense will update its guidance regarding trans-identifying medical standards for military service to ensure it prioritizes “readiness and lethality,” the White House said. “On the battlefield, there can be no accommodation for anything less than resilience, strength, and the ability to withstand extraordinary physical demands.”
According to its fact sheet, the White House argues it can take a minimum of 12 months for an individual to complete treatments after transition surgery. During this period, they are not “physically capable of meeting military readiness requirements and require ongoing medical care. This is not conducive for deployment or other readiness requirements,” the new administration contends.
Trump issued a similar ban during his first term that barred transgender troops from serving, which former President Joe Biden rescinded.
In 2019 — the most recent year for which figures were available — the Department of Defense estimated that approximately 8,000 transgender individuals served on active duty in the military.
The third executive order reinstates all members of the military — active and reserve — who were discharged for refusing the COVID-19 vaccine. Those who are reinstated will receive their former rank and full back pay with benefits.
From 2021 to 2023, over 8,000 troops were discharged due to their COVID-19 vaccination status.
Trump also signed an order mandating a process to develop an “American Iron Dome,” similar to the air defense system in Israel.