This is not what the president wanted to hear. His supporters are furious over this news.
And a federal court smacked the Trump admin with a vicious ruling.
A federal appeals court has stepped in to halt the Trump administration’s efforts to bar nearly 30 transgenders from serving in the U.S. military.
In a narrow 2-1 ruling, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit decided these service members can keep their positions while legal challenges drag on, according to the New York Times.
The case stems from lawsuits filed after President Trump moved to enforce clear biological reality in the armed forces.
The plaintiffs, a small group of 28 individuals, now press the court to stretch this temporary protection across every transgender troop in uniform, per the Times.
Judge Robert L. Wilkins authored the majority opinion, noting the administration’s firm stance:
“In the beginning days of his second term in office, President Trump issued an Executive Order proclaiming that persons ‘expressing a false “gender identity” divergent from an individual’s s*x cannot satisfy the rigorous standards necessary for military service.’”
The judge went on to highlight statements from Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth:
“The President, and later Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth (now redesignated as Secretary of War), also declared that persons affiliated with gender dysphoria are unfit for military service, because among other things, the character of such persons (in the President’s and Secretary’s words) is ‘inconsistent’ with the ‘high standards . . . [of] honesty, humility, . . . and integrity.’”
Wilkins criticized the government’s approach in court:
“In this litigation, the government has not attempted to defend or provide any factual basis for these disparaging characterizations of American citizens.”
“Indeed, the government has not contested that the Plaintiff-Appellees who are currently serving (and who have collectively earned more than 80 recommendations) have served honorably and pose no threat to national security, even though they happen to be transgender and have suffered from gender dysphoria.”
This ruling arrives shortly after Trump’s January 2025 executive order laid out the policy in plain terms.
The order declared that “expressing a false ‘gender identity’ divergent from an individual’s s*x cannot satisfy the rigorous standards necessary for military service.”
