President Donald Trump made waves on Wednesday morning when he announced on Twitter that transgender individuals will not be allowed to serve in "any capacity in the U.S. military."
Trump began the series of tweets by saying that after consultation with generals and military experts, "the United States government will not accept or allow transgender individuals to serve in any capacity in the U.S. military."
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/890193981585444864
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/890196164313833472
Trump said that the military must be focused on "decisive and overwhelming victory" and cannot be "burdened with the tremendous medical costs and disruption" that allowing transgender individuals in the military would cause.
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/890197095151546369
It is not clear how this announcement will impact currently serving transgender individuals. Transgender service members have been serving openly since June 2016 when the Department of Defense lifted a long-standing ban.
At that time, it was estimated that there were as many as 11,000 transgender active duty service members and reservists, according to a RAND Corporation study.
After the ban on currently serving members was lifted, the Pentagon worked on a plan to admit transgender individuals into the services. Secretary of Defense James Mattis last month granted the Department of Defense a six-month delay while the Pentagon worked to implement the Obama administration policy.