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Rory McIlroy completes astonishing Masters victory in play-off win over Justin Rose
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As it happened: Rory McIlroy wins the Masters in mind-boggling drama
President Donald Trump speaks to reporters aboard Air Force One en route from Miami to Joint Base Andrews Mark Schiefelbein/AP/PA
Transgender Rights
Trump signs executive order seeking to ban transgender troops from US military
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 Joe Biden.
US PRESIDENT DONALD Trump has signed an executive order directing Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth to revise the Pentagon’s policy on transgender troops.
The move likely sets 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 Joe Biden shortly after he took office.
In his order, Trump 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 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.
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Transgender Americans have faced a roller coaster of changing policies on military service in recent years, with Democratic administrations seeking to permit them to serve openly while Trump has repeatedly sought to keep them out of the ranks.
The US military lifted a ban on transgender troops serving in the armed forces in 2016, during Democrat Barack Obama’s second term as president.
Under that policy, trans troops already serving were permitted to do so openly, and transgender recruits were set to start being accepted by 1 July 2017.
But the first Trump administration postponed that date to 2018 before deciding to reverse the policy entirely, sparking criticism from rights groups.
Trump’s Democratic successor Joe Biden moved to reverse the restrictions just days after he took office in 2021, saying all Americans qualified to serve should be able to do so.
While the number of transgender troops in the US military is fairly small — with estimates of around 15,000 out of more than two million uniformed service members — their dismissal would reduce US forces at a time when the country is already facing difficulties recruiting new personnel.
Biden’s defense secretary Lloyd Austin appeared to criticize Trump’s plans during a farewell address earlier this month, saying: “Any military that turns away qualified patriots who are eager to serve is just making itself smaller and weaker.”
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