Trumps Bars Transgender From Military
 

Does it matter what Trump twits? Nobody takes Trump seriously. Everything he announces on Twitter is widely ignored by all but his most myopic supporters, and will be erased, reversed and forgotten in a few years. I doubt the US Military will actually enact the ban - it will cost far more than leaving the status quo.

I suppose you overlook the powers invested in the Office of President perhaps.

Don't fret over Tweets.....look at Executive Orders when issued.

Powers of the Presidency are not absolute but they are codified in law.

As a result, some are subject to challenge in Federal Courts to include right up to the Supreme Court.

Don't let TDS trip you up in thinking what the real situation is re the Powers of the Office.

You may not like him, you may hate his policies, but he is the President.

You missing Obama yet, SASless?

I guess it is a big fcuk off to those transgendered folk already in uniform, then. According to the press there a few thousand of them. Retired through ill health?

Yes....greatly missing Obama....like a bad case of Hemorrhoids....feels so good when they are gone.

I do wish someone would cancel Trumps Twitter Account as despite what he thinks....it does as much harm as good. Used better it would be of good benefit.

But then Trump would not be Trump would he if that were the case.

You have to admit....he is not a conventional politician as by the time one of them gets to the White House they know not to pick un-neccessary fights and stick to the script as much as possible. But....we have to accept he is not a conventional politician which means there is some good and some not so good that comes of that.

But with the Media and the Deep State....If Trump tweeted his administration had discovered a cure for Cancer....the headlines would be "Trump puts Doctors out work!".

The Obama Administration approved Transgenders serving openly in the Military but the DOD and Military Services have put a hold on that policy citing Studies needed to be done to determine policies, costs, etc.....perhaps Trump was stepping in and putting an end to the dilly dallying about by DOD and the Services.

There is more to all of this than what is in the Tweets I am sure....what....who knows!

News report in Australia this morning suggests that the plan will have come from senior military advisors with Trump being given the doubtful honour of announcing it.

I accept them in the military, I don't accept that the taxpayers should be on the hook for their surgery.

Hmmmm. Two comments:

1. For 7 1/2 years the Obama policy was identical to Trump's current policy. Where was the outrage then?

2. Trump said he'd let his military leaders decide and gave the job to Mattis to find out what his military leaders recommended. They made the decision. He has their back and Trump is making their decision law.

Get over it.

Here is what Medicare/Medicaid had to say about the Government paying for medical procedures......and it is pure government double talk after they say the Population affected by the situation is too small to be able to effectively determine the need/benefit of such surgery/treatment.

Now if that is for a population far larger than described in the DOD funded Rand Studies.....then perhaps there is a lot of hot air about a very small issue.

https://www.cms.gov/medicare-coverag...aspx?NCAId=282

".....James Mattis, the defence secretary who is on holiday, was understood to have learnt about the decision after the president tweeted it......."

".....The Pentagon appeared to be caught off guard by Trump’s announcement, and deferred to the White House when reached for comment. "We will continue to work closely with the White House to address the new guidance provided by the commander-in-chief on trans individuals serving the military,” a spokesperson for the defense department said. “We will provide revised guidance to the department in the near future.”......

........An administration official fueled speculation over the president’s motives by suggesting that the shift was a political ploy that would force Democrats facing re-election in states won by Trump into complex culture wars.......

Just to add to the point about it being political, it has been commented elsewhere that Trump deliberately published his decision on 26th July - the anniversary of the day that President Truman signed Executive Order 9981 abolishing racial discrimination in the US armed forces.....

Just watched the BBC news, reported that trans gender folk are in/joining the military in much higher proportions than any other group...treatment/surgery is expensive.

It's not so much the things that The Donald does, it's the way he says it.

According the a Rand report, the US military spends upwards of $40 million a year on viagra, versus somewhere between $2m to $8m on treatments for transgender troops. Using cost as a reason is a red herring.

Viagra? In my days in the RAF we had no need of such a thing. In fact the Air Ministry shelled out thousands of pounds putting Bromide in our tea.

Did it work? :hmm:

If Eisenhower had reversed Truman's 1948 order to allow the integration of the US armed forces, would you have said: "For 3 years Truman's policy on blacks and whites in the armed forces was identical to Eisenhower's. Where was the outrage then?" That just makes no sense.

Did they make the decision? By all accounts, no one in the DoD had a clue that this was coming, and Mattis himself was on holiday.

I'd concur with that, West Coast.

On Trump's tweets...

Oh no they won't! They are already part of the written history of the Office of the President of the USA.

As for why the announcement? A pussy grab on a pretty marine that went awry maybe?

CG

People join the armed forces for various reasons, and the forces offer numerous incentives to recruit and retain the ones it wants. I'll just point the TG medical costs are an awful lot lower than the GI Bill College costs.