Trump Gives Mattis Wide Discretion Over Transgender Ban

Defense Secretary Jim Mattis has six months to develop a plan to implement President Trump’s directive on transgender individuals in the military.

WASHINGTON — President Trump signed a long-awaited directive on Friday that precludes transgender individuals from joining the military but gives Defense Secretary Jim Mattis wide discretion in determining whether transgender personnel who are already in the armed forces can continue to serve.

A senior White House official told reporters that Mr. Mattis’s decisions will be based on several criteria, including military effectiveness and budgetary concerns. The official also said that the military would no longer pay for sex reassignment surgeries unless withholding such funds would harm the health of someone already transitioning.

Left unclear was how many of the thousands of transgender service personnel estimated to be in the military might keep serving. An estimated 2,000 to 11,000 active duty and reserve troops are transgender, according to a 2016 study by the RAND Corporation.

Although pressed repeatedly by reporters, the senior official declined to comment on the possibility that many or even all transgender individuals could continue to serve if Mr. Mattis declined to remove them.

Mr. Mattis has six months to develop a plan to implement Mr. Trump’s directive. The directive also applies to the Department of Homeland Security and the Coast Guard.

Military Transgender Ban to Begin Within 6 Months, Memo Says

A protest last month outside the White House.  

WASHINGTON — President Trump is preparing to give the Defense Department formal authority to expel transgender people from the military in an upcoming order, barring the Pentagon from recruiting transgender troops and cutting off payment for sexual reassignment surgery and other medical treatments for those already serving.

A White House memo that is expected to be sent to the Pentagon in coming days gives Jim Mattis, the secretary of defense, six months to enforce the transgender ban that Mr. Trump announced abruptly last month in a series of tweets. The directive was confirmed Wednesday by a person familiar with its contents but who was not authorized to discuss its details and spoke on the condition of anonymity.

The authority has not yet been finalized. Once it is approved, it would allow Mr. Mattis to force out transgender service members by setting a legal standard of whether they would be able to deploy to war zones or for other lengthy military missions.

The president’s order-by-social media caught senior military officials by surprise and short-circuited the customary interagency policy process that attends such sweeping decisions. At the time, as senior military officials scrambled to determine how to carry out the order, White House officials said they would work with the Pentagon to devise a policy to fit Mr. Trump’s tweets.

 Follow

Donald J. Trump ✔@realDonaldTrump

After consultation with my Generals and military experts, please be advised that the United States Government will not accept or allow……

8:55 AM – Jul 26, 2017

Donald J. Trump ✔@realDonaldTrump

….Transgender individuals to serve in any capacity in the U.S. Military. Our military must be focused on decisive and overwhelming…..

9:04 AM – Jul 26, 2017

Donald J. Trump ✔@realDonaldTrump

….victory and cannot be burdened with the tremendous medical costs and disruption that transgender in the military would entail. Thank you

9:08 AM – Jul 26, 2017

Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the White House press secretary, declined late Wednesday to comment on any forthcoming guidance, saying the White House had no announcement on the matter. The memo was first reported by The Wall Street Journal.

Advocates of allowing transgender people to serve openly said the guidance imposed an unacceptable double standard.

The Trump White House

The historic moments, head-spinning developments and inside-the-White House intrigue.

• Trump Gives Mattis Wide Discretion Over Transgender BanAUG 25

• Trump Administration Prepares for Hurricane HarveyAUG 25

• Trump’s Afghan Gamble Now Rests on General He DoubtedAUG 24

• Trump Fences Himself In With Border Wall Spending ThreatAUG 24

• John Kelly’s Latest Mission: Controlling the Information Flow to TrumpAUG 24

See More »

“It is unconscionable that the commander in chief would take aim at his own, loyally serving troops for political reasons at a time when the military needs to focus on real threats,” said Aaron Belkin, the director of the Palm Center, a research institute that had worked with the military to devise its policy on admitting transgender service members.

“Imposing one set of standards for transgender troops, and another set of standards for everyone else is a recipe for disruption, distraction and waste,” Mr. Belkin said.

Mr. Trump gave no warning before announcing the ban in July and declaring on Twitter that American forces could not afford the “tremendous medical costs and disruption” of transgender service members. The president said he had consulted generals and military experts, but Mr. Mattis was given only a day’s notice about Mr. Trump’s decision.

The upcoming guidance — basing expulsion on a troop’s ability to serve — appears to be an attempt to reconcile Mr. Trump’s call for a blanket ban with concerns about whether the defense secretary should dismiss transgender forces who are currently in the ranks.

Mr. Trump’s decision was roundly denounced by members of both parties, many of whom argued that anyone willing and able to fight for their country should be welcomed into the military.

“This is NOT how you keep America safe,” Representative Nancy Pelosi of California, the minority leader, said in a Twitter post. “Period. #ProtectTransTroops.”

The ban reverses a year-old policy crafted by the Obama administration that allowed transgender people to serve openly in the military.

That policy affects only a small portion of the approximately 1.3 million active-duty members of the military. Some 2,000 to 11,000 active-duty and reserves troops are transgender, according to a 2016 RAND Corporation study commissioned by the Pentagon, though estimates of the number of transgender service members have varied widely, and are sometimes as high as 15,000.

The issue became a flash point for social conservatives who argued that transgender people had no place in the military. Some Republican lawmakers threatened to refuse to fund the military without a prohibition on using federal money to pay for transition surgery or related hormone therapy.

“As transgender service members, we are and have always been soldiers, sailors, airmen, Marines, and Coast Guardsmen first,” said Blake Dremann, the president of Sparta, an L.G.B.T. military group with 500 active-duty members. “We serve our country honorably, in good faith.”