Trump is Looking to Boot Transgender Troops from the Military. Here's Why That's Complicated

What Does the Order Say?

Trump's order essentially says that anyone who is diagnosed with gender dysphoria – the unease someone has when their assigned sex and gender identity don't match – cannot serve in the military. It gives the defense secretary 60 days to update the medical standards for enlistment and re-enlistment to reflect that change. And it gives Hegseth 30 days to lay out how he plans to implement it all.

According to the order, "expressing a false 'gender identity' divergent from an individual's sex cannot satisfy the rigorous standards necessary for military service." It says the hormonal and surgical needs involved in taking on a different gender identity "conflicts with a soldier's commitment to an honorable, truthful, and disciplined lifestyle."

It concludes that, "A man's assertion that he is a woman, and his requirement that others honor this falsehood, is not consistent with the humility and selflessness required of a service member."

The order also zeroes in on the heady bathroom issue.

On his first day in office Trump issued an executive order that he said would "restore biological truth" to the federal government by eliminating the word "gender" and replacing it with "sex." He said the federal government will only recognize people based on their sex at the time of conception based on their "reproductive cell."

His latest order expands on that, saying the military will "neither allow males to use or share sleeping, changing, or bathing facilities designated for females, nor allow females to use or share sleeping, changing, or bathing facilities designated for males."