White House defends Trump’s transgender ban in press briefing

Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders defended President Trump’s Twitter announcement Wednesday, banning transgender people from serving in the military in “any capacity”

“This decision was made after extensive discussions with the national security team and it was in the military’s best interest to end this Obama policy, this is a very expensive and disruptive policy and based on consultation with his national security team, it erodes military readiness and unit cohesion, and he made the decision based on that”, Sanders said.

The ban is an outright reversal of the Obama era policy that allowed Transgender people be able to serve in the U.S. Military. A policy that has been in effect since last year with Transgender service members serving openly in the military, though former Defense Secretary Ash Carter gave a July 1 deadline to develop policies that allow those who are already transgender newly join the military, if they meet physical, medical and other standards, Fox reports.

In the President’s defense, Sanders said the decision was a tough one for Trump to make but was the best for the military; “The decision is based on a military decision—not meant to be anything more than that—obviously this is a very difficult decision. It’s not a simple one, but the president feels it’s the best one for the military”.

Defense Secretary Jim Mattis had earlier given military chiefs an additional six months to review and determine if allowing transgender individuals to enlist would affect the “readiness or lethality” of the force. The review deadline for that – Dec. 1, 2017.

Sanders could not say what would happen to the Transgender people currently serving in the U.S. military and how the policy would be implemented. “Implementation of the policy” would be worked out between the White House and Department of Defense, she said.

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