Trump bans transgenders from military service

[Thank you for being a friend...]

I am trans and all I can say is how awful I feel about this... just when you think we've come such a long way, you hear this.  Then, you hear the reaction to it- and it makes you realize we HAVE come a long way...  This Tweet is widespread news across the country, and even Trump voters in my area are talking about it and they're not pleased.  I dont think he realized that its extremely controversial to talk about soldiers like this no matter who they are

Trans people have been fighting in wars, sacrificing their lives, for thousands of years in every part of the world.  This is a dishonor to their memory.

I have personally met over a dozen trans Vietnam veterans and they live in places like Ohio, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia... and they are loved by their small town communities.

[Brittain33]

Everyone, read this Politico story now for back story.

http://www.politico.com/story/2017/07/26/trump-transgender-military-ban-behind-the-scenes-240990

A band of House Republicans were upset that their ban on gender-reassignment surgery for the military was getting blocked in Congress, and also that Mattis didn't take their side. So they went directly to Trump and threatened to blow up funding for The Wall and the military if he didn't take their side. He went one further and announced he wanted to kick all trans people out of the military, which they weren't asking for.

Now there's more confusion in the deal, Mattis is pissed off, no one knows what to do next.

[Virginiá]

Surely there is a better way to make and announce policy than via Twitter.

What is better than going straight to the masses??

Putting aside Twitter's tiny character limit and unprofessional nature, Trump has a worrying tendency to shoot from the hip, leaving tons of people in Congress, from his own party and even his own administration completely blindsided by sudden, new changes. This is completely unnecessary. There is no reason for it. Trump is trying to run the country like his tiny company, where spur-the-moment decisions that no one is clued into are fine if not still sloppy. That doesn't work for a country with 320+ million people and a federal government with a workforce of over 2 million people.

Say what you will about what Trump is trying to do, his policies, whatever, but he is absolutely incompetent when it comes to running large organizations, and arguably any organization.

[SoLongAtlas]

Folks at the Pentagon thought Trump was going to announce strikes against North Korea.

That's what I was expecting as well.

[Absentee Voting Ghost of Ruin]

Everyone, read this Politico story now for back story.

http://www.politico.com/story/2017/07/26/trump-transgender-military-ban-behind-the-scenes-240990

A band of House Republicans were upset that their ban on gender-reassignment surgery for the military was getting blocked in Congress, and also that Mattis didn't take their side. So they went directly to Trump and threatened to blow up funding for The Wall and the military if he didn't take their side. He went one further and announced he wanted to kick all trans people out of the military, which they weren't asking for.

Now there's more confusion in the deal, Mattis is pissed off, no one knows what to do next.

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Military service is an obligation. It's not a holiday with guns or welfare for people who like the military.


And I'm sure she'll be down with cutting military Viagra expenditures too, rather than wasting "precious defense dollars" on those, right? Where exactly do these "precious defense dollars" come from, anyway? Are they printed in a secret mint under the Pentagon? Do they have pictures of guns, warships and rockets on one side, with freezing and starving people on the other?

[Beet]

Surely there is a better way to make and announce policy than via Twitter.

What is better than going straight to the masses??

Putting aside Twitter's tiny character limit and unprofessional nature, Trump has a worrying tendency to shoot from the hip, leaving tons of people in Congress, from his own party and even his own administration completely blindsided by sudden, new changes. This is completely unnecessary. There is no reason for it. Trump is trying to run the country like his tiny company, where spur-the-moment decisions that no one is clued into are fine if not still sloppy. That doesn't work for a country with 320+ million people and a federal government with a workforce of over 2 million people.

Say what you will about what Trump is trying to do, his policies, whatever, but he is absolutely incompetent when it comes to running large organizations, and arguably any organization.

He's a troll, and for reasons unknown to me, it continues to work over two years after his foray into electoral politics. For instance, the Washington Post headline right now is "Trump announces ban on transgender people in U.S. military," when the real story, as Britain33 posted, is a lot murkier. Instead, the truth is not that he announced a ban, the headline should be "Trump tweets transgender people should not serve in the U.S. military." That accurately describes his tweet not as an official announcement (which it isn't), but as an off-the-cuff opinion. The media continues to enable Trump's trolling by taking him over-literally, which is precisely what makes trolls effective. Nor are the media's takes even accurate.

I've always said the corporate media made and continues a symbiotic relationship with Trump, and the mutual animosity of the two is all for show. Liberals have to stop buying into this nonsense and realize that both the media and Trump are the enemy.

[tallguy23]

Trump admits he's using transgenders as a campaign prop:

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Just the GOP being bigots as usual

If those voters would rather be uninsured and poor than have a trans person defend them.....then they can  off. I'm done being cordial.

[tallguy23]

Meh, when I enlisted you couldn't even be openly gay. This isn't that controversial to me or many other people.

So what? It's controversial for people who are now barred from serving.

I'm sorry but I feel these things are just social experiments of the left.

So I guess racially integrating the military and schools was just a "social experiment" too? At least these conversations show who is a total asshat.

[Fight for Trump]

Meh, when I enlisted you couldn't even be openly gay. This isn't that controversial to me or many other people.

So what? It's controversial for people who are now barred from serving.

I'm sorry but I feel these things are just social experiments of the left.

So I guess racially integrating the military and schools was just a "social experiment" too? At least these conversations show who is a total asshat.

Some aspects of racial integration were, strictly speaking, social experiments. That's not necessarily a bad thing, but they were.

[Absentee Voting Ghost of Ruin]

Surely there is a better way to make and announce policy than via Twitter.

What is better than going straight to the masses??

Putting aside Twitter's tiny character limit and unprofessional nature, Trump has a worrying tendency to shoot from the hip, leaving tons of people in Congress, from his own party and even his own administration completely blindsided by sudden, new changes. This is completely unnecessary. There is no reason for it. Trump is trying to run the country like his tiny company, where spur-the-moment decisions that no one is clued into are fine if not still sloppy. That doesn't work for a country with 320+ million people and a federal government with a workforce of over 2 million people.

Say what you will about what Trump is trying to do, his policies, whatever, but he is absolutely incompetent when it comes to running large organizations, and arguably any organization.

He's a troll, and for reasons unknown to me, it continues to work over two years after his foray into electoral politics. For instance, the Washington Post headline right now is "Trump announces ban on transgender people in U.S. military," when the real story, as Britain33 posted, is a lot murkier. Instead, the truth is not that he announced a ban, the headline should be "Trump tweets transgender people should not serve in the U.S. military." That accurately describes his tweet not as an official announcement (which it isn't), but as an off-the-cuff opinion. The media continues to enable Trump's trolling by taking him over-literally, which is precisely what makes trolls effective. Nor are the media's takes even accurate.

I've always said the corporate media made and continues a symbiotic relationship with Trump, and the mutual animosity of the two is all for show. Liberals have to stop buying into this nonsense and realize that both the media and Trump are the enemy.

If our journalists, media and reporting -  in aggregate - were any good, Trump would have been laughed out of the campaign soon after he entered. And he would still be met with nothing but detailed and well-earned derision, scorn and mockery. The GOP bears ultimate responsibility for the petty horror that is President Trump, but the media collectively helped and is still helping him.

[Beet]

I mean this entire country is a social experiment. Some people forget that and confuse Trump's ethnonationalism with actual American nationalism.

[afleitch]

Surely there is a better way to make and announce policy than via Twitter.

What is better than going straight to the masses??

The masses; the armed forces that this affects, are too busy to be twittering in the morning. Or any time during the day really.

[Middle-aged Europe]

Everyone, read this Politico story now for back story.

http://www.politico.com/story/2017/07/26/trump-transgender-military-ban-behind-the-scenes-240990

A band of House Republicans were upset that their ban on gender-reassignment surgery for the military was getting blocked in Congress, and also that Mattis didn't take their side. So they went directly to Trump and threatened to blow up funding for The Wall and the military if he didn't take their side. He went one further and announced he wanted to kick all trans people out of the military, which they weren't asking for.

Now there's more confusion in the deal, Mattis is pissed off, no one knows what to do next.

This whole transgender affair is starting to remind me a bit of the original Muslim ban debacle in late January. Making an abrupt and ill-prepared announcement which just creates a whole lot of chaos, because even officials within the Trump administration are totally taken aback by it.

Unfortunately, Donald Trump has the habit of never backing down - especially when he's criticized for something - so we're probably stuck with this mess.

[Fight for Trump]

This whole transgender affair is starting to remind me a bit of the original Muslim ban debacle in late January.

What Muslim ban?

[Middle-aged Europe]

This whole transgender affair is starting to remind me a bit of the original Muslim ban debacle in late January.

What Muslim ban?

Don't be a smartass.

[JerryArkansas]

Just a little message to any LGBT person who voted Trump. 

You played yourselves dumbass.

[Hnv1]

Just out of curiosity, any estimates as to how many transgender actually serve in the armed services?

[krazen1211]

I can see the court case (if one happens) to base it on discrimination of procedures, singling out one vs. allowance of all care, esp if done via TriCare/VA/base hospitals. Does the DoD have the right to prefer certain care in the overall structure as opposed to all? Would be an interesting SCOTUS case.

This one's not getting fast tracked to SCOTUS.......and it will be interesting to see if they even want to go there.

When Slick Willy created Don't Ask Don't Tell he repeatedly won in the federal courts!

[JerryArkansas]

Just out of curiosity, any estimates as to how many transgender actually serve in the armed services?

15000  The largest employer of trans people in the United States.

[Fight for Trump]

Just out of curiosity, any estimates as to how many transgender actually serve in the armed services?

15000  The largest employer of trans people in the United States.

DoD is the largest employer in the world, full stop. Also the largest polluter on the planet.

[Brittain33]

Just out of curiosity, any estimates as to how many transgender actually serve in the armed services?

15000  The largest employer of trans people in the United States.

I think that's a high estimate; I've also seen several thousand. Regardless, more than a few.

[Del Tachi]

Just out of curiosity, any estimates as to how many transgender actually serve in the armed services?

15000  The largest employer of trans people in the United States.

I think that's a high estimate; I've also seen several thousand. Regardless, more than a few.

CNN just estimated 1600 to 3400, which seemed very low.

[🐒Gods of Prosperity🔱🐲💸]

Folks at the Pentagon thought Trump was going to announce strikes against North Korea.

He was going to announce a strike on N Korea but then took some time to think about it and changed his mind.  He had to finish the sentence though, so he settled on this.

[Gass3268]

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[🦀🎂🦀🎂]

I mean this entire country is a social experiment. Some people forget that and confuse Trump's ethnonationalism with actual American nationalism.

THROWING TEA IN BOSTON HARBOUR SOCIAL EXPERIMENT [PRANK GONE WRONG]