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Donald Trump is expected to sign an executive order that will remove transgender service members from the military on his first day in office.

The president-elect is reportedly preparing to issue an order after his Jan. 20 inauguration that would effectively ban transgender people from serving in the military — and then medically discharge the thousands of currently serving transgender members in the armed forces.

During his first term, Trump declared that the US would no longer “accept or allow” transgender people in the military, citing “massive medical costs and disruption,” he wrote in 2017. The ban took effect in 2019.

President Joe Biden reversed that policy, which was the subject of several lawsuits. Now Trump is expected to immediately rescind Biden’s order and go further by expelling currently serving trans troops, according to The timesciting sources familiar with the president-elect’s plans.

The executive action is part of a stack of orders the president-elect plans to issue once he re-enters the White House, including sweeping immigration action, all of which are expected to lead to significant legal battles.

During his campaign, in which Republican groups spent tens of millions of dollars on anti-trans ads targeting people who make up less than 1 percent of the country’s population, Trump promised to roll back key civil rights protections for LGBT+ people and block trans students . exercising or using bathrooms that match their gender identity. He also plans to ban gender-affirming health care for trans youth nationwide.

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Republicans have introduced hundreds of anti-trans bills at the state level, and within days of the 2024 election, GOP members of Congress have spent hours vilifying and misgendering transgender people, including the first-ever transgender member of Congress, as they push new legislation to blocking transgender people from bathrooms across the country.

The Republican Party’s 2024 platform lists “Keep Men Out of Women’s Sports” as one of its top priorities.

Trump’s nominee to lead the Defense Department, which will be in charge of three million military and civilian personnel around the world, supported Trump’s previous ban on transgender people and has baselessly claimed that transgender people are “undeployable” and “not usable”. complications.”

There are about 15,000 transgender people serving in the country’s armed forces, at a time when departments are facing recruitment shortages.

“These people will be forced out at a time when the military cannot recruit enough people,” said a source familiar with Trump’s plans. The times.

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Excluding transgender people from the military “would undermine the military’s readiness and create an even greater recruitment and retention crisis, not to mention increase vulnerability to U.S. adversaries,” Rachel Branaman, executive director of the Modern Military Association of America, to The Times.

“The abrupt layoff of more than 15,000 service members, especially given that the Army’s recruitment goals fell short by 41,000 recruits last year, increases administrative burdens on warfighting units, harms unit cohesion and exacerbates critical skills shortages,” she said. “There would be significant financial costs, as well as a loss of experience and leadership, which could potentially take 20 years and billions of dollars to replace.”

Paulo Batista, a transgender analyst in the Navy, shared The times that a ban would have a ripple effect through the armed forces.

“You take out 15,000 of us – there are more, but that’s the number that’s always mentioned – that’s 15,000 leadership positions, each of us plays a critical role,” he said. The times.

The independent has asked Trump’s transition team for comment.