Dozens of Retired Generals and Admirals Just Slammed Trump’s Military Trans Ban

It would “deprive the military of mission-critical talent.”

LifeJourneys/Getty

Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.

Less than a week after President Donald Trump tweeted that he would ban transgender service members from the military, dozens of retired generals and admirals have come out against the proposed policy, saying it would “cause significant disruptions” and “deprive the military of mission-critical talent.”

In a statement released on Tuesday by the Palm Center, a research institute that studies LGBT issues in the armed forces, 56 retired military leaders tore into Trump’s justification for the ban. While the president has argued it would be too expensive to pay for transgender troops’ medical care, the retired generals and admirals cited research showing the cost would amount to just “one-hundredth of one percent of the military’s annual health care budget.”

Trump’s tweets last Wednesday came as a shock to the Pentagon, which last year allowed transgender troops to serve openly for the first time in history. The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of staff, General Joseph Dunford, has said “no modifications” will occur in the military’s policy until the president issues specific direction to the secretary of defense.

“President Trump seeks to ban transgender service members because of the financial cost and disruption associated with transgender service,” the retired generals and admirals wrote. “We respectfully disagree, and consider these claims to be without merit.” (Read the full statement here.)

Also on Tuesday, Coast Guard Commandant Adm. Paul Zukunft announced his opposition to the ban. At a Center for Strategic and International Studies event in Washington, he said the Coast Guard had reached out to the branch’s 13 transgender service members to reaffirm support. “I will not turn my back. We have made an investment in you and you have made an investment in the Coast Guard and I will not break faith,” Zukunft said. 

AN IMPORTANT UPDATE

We’re falling behind our online fundraising goals and we can’t sustain coming up short on donations month after month. Perhaps you’ve heard? It is impossibly hard in the news business right now, with layoffs intensifying and fancy new startups and funding going kaput.

The crisis facing journalism and democracy isn’t going away anytime soon. And neither is Mother Jones, our readers, or our unique way of doing in-depth reporting that exists to bring about change.

Which is exactly why, despite the challenges we face, we just took a big gulp and joined forces with the Center for Investigative Reporting, a team of ace journalists who create the amazing podcast and public radio show Reveal.

If you can part with even just a few bucks, please help us pick up the pace of donations. We simply can’t afford to keep falling behind on our fundraising targets month after month.

Editor-in-Chief Clara Jeffery said it well to our team recently, and that team 100 percent includes readers like you who make it all possible: “This is a year to prove that we can pull off this merger, grow our audiences and impact, attract more funding and keep growing. More broadly, it’s a year when the very future of both journalism and democracy is on the line. We have to go for every important story, every reader/listener/viewer, and leave it all on the field. I’m very proud of all the hard work that’s gotten us to this moment, and confident that we can meet it.”

Let’s do this. If you can right now, please support Mother Jones and investigative journalism with an urgently needed donation today.

payment methods

AN IMPORTANT UPDATE

We’re falling behind our online fundraising goals and we can’t sustain coming up short on donations month after month. Perhaps you’ve heard? It is impossibly hard in the news business right now, with layoffs intensifying and fancy new startups and funding going kaput.

The crisis facing journalism and democracy isn’t going away anytime soon. And neither is Mother Jones, our readers, or our unique way of doing in-depth reporting that exists to bring about change.

Which is exactly why, despite the challenges we face, we just took a big gulp and joined forces with the Center for Investigative Reporting, a team of ace journalists who create the amazing podcast and public radio show Reveal.

If you can part with even just a few bucks, please help us pick up the pace of donations. We simply can’t afford to keep falling behind on our fundraising targets month after month.

Editor-in-Chief Clara Jeffery said it well to our team recently, and that team 100 percent includes readers like you who make it all possible: “This is a year to prove that we can pull off this merger, grow our audiences and impact, attract more funding and keep growing. More broadly, it’s a year when the very future of both journalism and democracy is on the line. We have to go for every important story, every reader/listener/viewer, and leave it all on the field. I’m very proud of all the hard work that’s gotten us to this moment, and confident that we can meet it.”

Let’s do this. If you can right now, please support Mother Jones and investigative journalism with an urgently needed donation today.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate