President Trump bans transgender people from the United States military

On Wednesday morning, President Trump dropped a bombshell on Twitter when he declared that the U.S. Military would not be accepting any transgender recruits at any point in the future, a walk-back from an Obama-era decision that was meant to take place in June.

President Trump said Wednesday that the US military will not accept transgender troops into its ranks or allow them to serve in any capacity, reversing a policy begun under the Obama administration. "Our military must be focused on decisive and overwhelming victory and can not be burdened with the tremendous medical costs and disruption that transgender in the military would entail". Our military must be focused on decisive and overwhelming.

An estimated 15,500 transgender people were either on active duty or serving in the National Guard or Reserve forces as of May 2014. These transgender individuals are allowed to serve openly, as per a policy announced in July of 2016.

The Defense Department's policy before Trump's announcement said transgender service members could not be "discharged or otherwise separated from the military exclusively for being transgender individuals".

It is unclear how Trump's policy will affect current transgender service members.

Last month, the Army had begun compulsory transgender sensitivity training for soldiers and civilian employees. Most recently, the Department of Defense had slated January 1, 2018 as a date when transgender people could enlist for the first time. Military leaders also wanted to review how transgender troops are treated, if they're discriminated against or if they have had disciplinary problems, the officials said.