Donald Trump critics lashed out on Sunday after a report that the former and incoming president is already setting the stage to boot all transgender people from the military on day one.
The Times, founded in 1785 in the United Kingdom, reported over the weekend that the president-elect is readying an executive order "to kick transgender troops out of U.S. military." The purported plan mirrors a policy Trump had during his first administration, when he announced in a tweet that trans people would no longer have the right to serve their country in the military.
"Donald Trump is planning an executive order that would lead to the removal of all transgender members of the US military, defence sources say," according to the report. "The order could come on his first day back in the White House, January 20. There are believed to be about 15,000 active service personnel who are transgender. They would be medically discharged, which would determine that they were unfit to serve."
Many in the MAGA camp celebrated the move, but others voiced their opposition on social media.
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"Congratulations, [trans-exclusionary radical feminists]," wrote Nathan Kalman-Lamb, an assistant professor of sociology at University of New Brunswick and the author of Game Misconduct: Injury, Fandom, and the Business of Sport. "Your relentless campaign of dehumanization has found the benefactor you longed for."
In a follow-up comment, Kalman-Lamb said that "ending civil rights for some populations is not just a problem for liberals."
Polling USA pointed out that booting people from the military could exacerbate an existing problem.
"Sir, I have an idea how to make the existing military recruitment problem even worse," the account wrote in response.
Dave Thul, a former GOP activist and an Iraq war veteran, also chimed in:
"Just to be clear- the same people that screamed against Biden for discharging troops for not getting Covid shots will now cheer Trump for discharging transgender troops," Thul wrote. "Either the Commander in Chief has the authority or he does not."
