Trump to Sign Executive Orders Restricting Transgender Troops, Ending Military DEI Practices

President Donald Trump is expected to soon sign new executive orders restricting openly transgender people serving in the U.S. military, as well as eliminating diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs and practices within the military.

The Epoch Times obtained from the White House multiple fact sheets detailing these executive orders on Monday, ahead of a final announcement.

Addressing transgender individuals in the military, the Trump administration will focus on concerns that these individuals are not physically capable of meeting the demands of military service while undergoing gender-transitioning surgeries.

“It can take a minimum of 12 months for an individual to complete treatments after transition surgery, which often involves the use of heavy narcotics. During this period, they are not physically capable of meeting military readiness requirements and require ongoing medical care,” a fact sheet concerning the order states.

During his first term, Trump enacted similar policies to limit trans-identifying troops in the military. President Joe Biden undid these Trump-era efforts shortly after taking office in 2021, signing Executive Order 14004 expressly permitting transgender individuals to serve in the military.

Trump’s new order rescinds Biden’s 2021 executive order. In its place, the new Trump order requires the Department of Defense to update its medical standards regarding the readiness and deployability of its forces.

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The new order also states the military will no longer recognize the use of “invented and identification-based pronouns.” Further, the order states biological males and females will use the sleeping, changing, and bathroom facilities that correspond to their biological sex.

This order concerning gender identity and transgender individuals will apply to the various branches of the U.S. military and the U.S. Coast Guard.

According to a fact sheet on his second executive order on the matter, Trump will do away with DEI practices that result in “discriminatory race- or sex-based preferences by any element of the Armed Forces, the Department of Defense, or the Department of Homeland Security.”

Further, the second executive order will call on newly-confirmed Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to review allegations of discrimination stemming from past DEI programs and practices within the military. The order will also require Hegseth and newly-confirmed Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem to review the curriculums of U.S. military service academies and other academic institutions within their purview to ensure DEI programs and practices are discontinued.

These new executive orders followed Hegseth and Noem’s confirmation by the Senate for their respective cabinet positions last week.

Trump is also expected to soon announce an executive order reinstating U.S. troops who were involuntarily discharged for refusing a Biden-era order to be vaccinated against COVID-19. A fact sheet states that this order will apply to service members who request to be reinstated, allowing them to return to their former rank and receive the full extent of back pay and benefits they lost as a result of their separation.