President Donald Trump addresses the audience after the inaugural parade during the 60th Presidential Inauguration at Capital One Arena in Washington, D.C., Jan. 20, 2025. (Staff Sgt. Danny Gonzalez/Defense Department )
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump signed four executive orders Monday that revise the Pentagon’s transgender policy, eliminate diversity, equity and inclusion programs, reinstate service members who were kicked out for refusing the coronavirus vaccine and create an “Iron Dome” for the country.
Trump signed the orders while aboard Air Force One on a return flight to Washington from Florida.
“We will get transgender ideology the hell out of our military. It’s going to be gone,” Trump said Monday night at a retreat of House Republicans at his Doral golf resort in Miami.
The order does not immediately ban transgender troops but requires the Defense Department to update all medical standards “to establish high standards of readiness, lethality … and integrity.” It will end the use of pronouns in the military “that inaccurately reflect an individual’s sex” and prohibits men from “sharing sleeping, changing, or bathing in facilities” designated for women. The order also applies to women using facilities for men.
The order directs the Pentagon to determine a policy for service members based on readiness within 30 days.
Former President Joe Biden ended Trump’s de facto ban on transgender service members and allowed individuals who meet military entrance qualifications to enlist, serve in their self-identified gender and access care deemed medically necessary for gender transition.
In July 2017, Trump issued a series of surprise tweets announcing his intention to ban transgender men and women from serving “in any capacity.” The Pentagon’s de facto ban on transgender men and women enlisting in the military went into effect in April 2019, following nearly two years of legal battles launched after transgender service members and military hopefuls sought to halt its implementation.
The Pentagon long insisted its policy was not a blanket ban because of its protections for those transgender service members who came out after the 2016 policy and a waiver process that could allow some transgender people to join the military.
But the policy barred nearly all people diagnosed with gender dysphoria — described by the American Psychiatric Association as “a conflict between a person’s physical or assigned gender and the gender with which he/she/they identify.” It did allow people to enlist with a diagnosis of gender dysphoria who had doctor certification that they had remained stable in their biological sex for 36 months. It disqualified all people who had medically transitioned their sex.
The Pentagon in March 2021, when the department unveiled the policy change to allow transgender troops, estimated the number of service members who identified as transgender ranged from 1,000 to 8,000. The Human Rights Campaign in November estimated a ban on transgender troops could impact about 15,000 service members.
Among Trump’s initial executive orders signed last week was one that declared the government would recognize only two sexes — male and female. He also rolled back diversity, equity and inclusion, or DEI, programs across all federal agencies.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Sunday posted on X that the president’s orders are clear, “no more DEI” at the Pentagon.
“The Pentagon will comply, immediately. No exceptions, name-changes or delays,” Hegseth said.
The order calls for the Defense Department and the Department of Homeland Security to abolish every DEI office within the agencies.
The secretaries of both departments must provide detailed guidance for the implementation of this order to their respective agencies within 30 days of the order signing. Within 180 days, the secretaries must submit a report through the White House deputy chief of staff for policy documenting the progress of implementing the order, along with any recommendations for action to fulfill the objectives of this order.
It remains unclear Tuesday what Pentagon policies were canceled and what programs are still in effect.
The Air Force last week was told to eliminate barrier analysis working groups, which aim to improve equal employment for women, minorities, LGBTQ+ and disabled service members.
Courses featuring videos about the pioneering Black combat pilots and female flyers who ferried warplanes during World War II were removed last week to comply with the Trump administration’s crackdown on diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, the Air Force said.
The move prompted Sen. Katie Britt, R-Ala., to post Sunday on social platform X, tagging Hegseth, that she expected he would correct “malicious compliance” seen in recent days.
The Air Force is restoring videos of the Tuskegee Airmen and Women Airforce Service Pilots, or WASPs, to its basic training curriculum, Hegseth announced Sunday.
Gen. David Allvin, Air Force chief of staff, in a statement Monday said he directed the service to implement the president’s orders swiftly — “no equivocation, no slow-rolling, no foot-dragging.” He took the time to clear up any confusion regarding the Tuskegee Airmen or WASPs.
“Allow me to clearly dispel a rumor — while we are currently reviewing all training courses to ensure compliance with the executive orders, no curriculum or content highlighting the honor and valor of the Tuskegee Airmen or Women Air Force Service Pilots has been removed from Basic Military Training,” Allvin said. “The historic legacy and decorated valor these airmen embodied during World War II and beyond will continue to guide our newest recruits and all who serve in our ranks.”
During Trump’s inauguration speech last week, he said he would sign an executive order reinstating all service members, with full back pay, kicked out for refusing the coronavirus vaccine.
“The vaccine mandate was an unfair, overbroad, and completely unnecessary burden on our service members,” according to the executive order. “Further, the military unjustly discharged those who refused the vaccine, regardless of the years of service given to our nation, after failing to grant many of them an exemption that they should have received. Federal government redress of any wrongful dismissals is overdue.”
The executive order calls for service members to revert to their former rank, along with receiving full back pay, benefits, bonus payments or compensation. It also allows any service members “who provide a written and sworn attestation” because they voluntarily left or allowed their service time to lapse to return to service with no impact on their service status, rank or pay.
Former Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin ordered in August 2021 that all active-duty, National Guard and Reserve service members be vaccinated against the coronavirus or face separation. Troops at the time with a health condition incompatible with the vaccine could get a waiver. Additionally, troops with religious beliefs that prohibit the use of vaccines could seek exemption.
The order was rescinded January 2023. More than 8,000 service members were discharged from the military for refusing to get the vaccine for religious or other reasons.
The number affected represents less than 1% of the military but dismissals were a political headache for Biden’s administration and the Pentagon. Some of those troops sued to try and stay in the service, calling the order an illegal mandate.
Only 113 military personnel have returned since the mandate was lifted — 73 for the Army, 13 for the Air Force, 25 for the Marine Corps and two for the Navy, according to service spokespersons. The Space Force did not have any Guardians kicked out for refusing the vaccine, Air Force spokeswoman Rose Riley said.
Another executive order that Trump signed would begin the process of creating a “next generation” missile defense shield to protect the U.S. against ballistic missiles and other long-range attacks.
It orders the construction of an “Iron Dome” shield, borrowing the name of the vaunted short-range Israeli missile defense system that for years has been used to intercept launches against them. The U.S. provided billions of dollars in funding to Iron Dome, and the Army has its own system.
“President Ronald Reagan endeavored to build an effective defense against nuclear attacks, and while this program resulted in many technological advances, it was canceled before its goal could be realized,” the executive order reads. “Over the past 40 years, rather than lessening, the threat from next-generation strategic weapons has become more intense and complex with the development by peer and near-peer adversaries of next-generation delivery systems and their own homeland integrated air and missile defense capabilities.”
The order calls for the Defense Department to work with the director of the Office of Management and Budget to submit to the president a plan to fund this directive, allowing sufficient time for Trump to consider before finalizing the fiscal year 2026 budget.
The U.S. has the capability to deploy a layered air-defense system, from long-range Patriot missiles that have proven effective at intercepting ballistic and cruise missiles over Ukraine to shorter-range systems such as shoulder-launched Stinger missiles.
Since 2002, the Pentagon’s Missile Defense Agency has spent more than $194 billion, including $10.4 billion for fiscal year 2022, to equip operational commanders with a layered system of sensors, interceptors, and command and control capabilities to detect, track and destroy incoming missiles, the Government Accountability Office said in a 2023 report.
