Trump signs order to revise the Pentagon’s policy on transgender troops

President Donald Trump has signed an executive order directing Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth to revise the Pentagon’s policy on transgender troops, likely setting in motion a future ban on their military service.

Trump had tried to impose a ban on transgender troops during his first term, but it was tangled up in the courts for years before being overturned by then-President Joe Biden shortly after he took office.

Trump in his order Monday claimed that troops who identify as a gender other than their biological one “conflicts with a soldier’s commitment to an honourable, truthful, and disciplined lifestyle, even in one’s personal life.”

He said that was harmful to military readiness and, due to that, required a revised policy to address the matter.

Lawyers for transgender troops who challenged the ban in the courts during Trump’s first term have already pledged to fight the new ban.

This is a breaking news update – more details will follow.