Bulwark Takes - Trump Announces Cruel Transgender Military Ban

Episode Date: February 27, 2025

Tim Miller goes over the memo from the Pentagon that goes over how they will implement the transgender ban: Kicking out hard working military members because their gender doesn't align with Trump, Hegseth, and the current administration.

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apply. Hey, everybody. It's Tim Miller from the Bulwark. We have official guidance now on the trans-military ban that is being instituted by Pete Hegseth and Donald Trump. And I'm going to get into my outrage about that after I read for you a little bit of what they have declared is the new policy of the United States military. So starting at the top, it's the policy of the U.S. government to establish high standards for service member readiness, lethality, cohesion, honesty, humility, uniformity, and integrity. This policy is inconsistent with the medical, surgical, and mental health constraints on individuals with gender dysphoria or who have a current diagnosis or history of or exhibit symptoms consistent with gender dysphoria. So not potentially even just transgender folks this might apply to, but others who might be accused of exhibiting symptoms consistent with gender dysphoria.

They go on to say explicitly, here's the statement, individuals who have a current diagnosis or history of or exhibit symptoms consistent with gender dysphoria are no longer eligible for military service. As for existing members, the memorandum instructs the heads of the various branches to establish procedures and implement steps to identify service members who have a current diagnosis or history of or exhibit symptoms consistent with gender dysphoria within 30 days. And within 30 days of this identification, all existing service members who have such a diagnosis are assigned to the Office of the Secretary of Defense and will be reassigned for the purpose of initiating administrative separation processes, which means kicking them out of the military. There is a waiver. I was intrigued by this. There's a waiver. I was thinking maybe for, I don't know, trans service members who have served

honorably and have demonstrated that they're not a threat to cohesion in any way and have demonstrated that they're a strong war fighter, et cetera. No, the waiver does not apply to anyone who has transitioned or attempted to transition. It only applies to people that I guess have exhibited these symptoms, whatever those are, of gender dysphoria. And they could get around such accusations, I guess, if they've demonstrated

for a certain number of time that they are strong in their body parts, whatever the fuck Pete Hegseth wants. I don't know. I guess Hegseth may be able to do a dick check on them and make sure everything's okay. So that's where we are. I want to go back to that first segment that I read. This order is set because they want to protect our military's readiness, lethality, cohesion, honesty, humility, uniformity, and integrity. So they're explicitly saying that if you are transgender, you are not honest. You do not have humility. You do not have integrity. I mean, it is such a fucking slap in the face. For two men, Donald Trump and Pete Hegseth,

who have cheated on multiple wives, in Donald Trump's case, bragged about cheating on his wives in the newspaper while his young kids were still in school. In Donald Trump's case, bragged about cheating on his wives in the newspaper while his young kids were still in school. In Donald Trump's case, bragged about sexual assault to Billy Bush during Excess Hollywood. In Donald Trump's case, someone who's been adjudicated in civil court of sexual assault, Eugene Carroll, who's lied about that, has been adjudicated as having lied about that, has been reprimanded by the court about his lies. Then you have Pete Hegseth, a man who was accused of sexual assault in California, but even in his telling of the story, was cheating with a married woman while drunk, hammered at 1 a.m., berating a hotel staff on a work trip.

Meanwhile, his baby mama was at home with their young child, and his wife was engaging in divorce proceedings against him. We have to go through Donald Trump's whole history of fraud and lies and Pete Hegsa's lying on Fox News. The idea that these people, Donald Trump and Pete Hegseth, would look at transgender military service members, service men and women, and say to them, you do not have the honesty or integrity to be in our military? Fuck you. Fuck you, Pete Hegseth. You don't have the honesty or integrity to come into my home.

All right. If Pete, if my daughter was around Pete Hegseth or Donald Trump, like I would do everything possible to ensure that she was not alone with them one-on-one like the the notion that these men can choose can point their finger at the people that are voluntarily serving our country and saying that because they identify as transgender or because they you know whatever i don't have some history of gender dysphoria that that makes them dishonest, that that makes them people that don't have integrity. It is just, it is so fucking gross. It is, it just makes you want to throw up on their shoes. Like these men are trash. They are dishonest. They do not have humility. They do not have integrity. And for them to accuse other people of that while they are putting themselves in harm's way for our

country, on its, you know, unfortunately, had they not won, it would disqualify them from public service. But obviously, I guess the American people disagree with that. But from my opinion, it disqualifies them from representing our country. And you know on top of that i've done this before but i didn't serve in the military so you know i i think maybe there are legitimate reasons for people to try to avoid military service during vietnam um but you cannot tell me that you are a lying draft dodger who pretended that you had a foot injury. And you then judge the service of people who volunteered to defend their country, who volunteered to put themselves in harm's way, who have gone and served this country in Iraq and Afghanistan, who are willing to serve this country. If you, Mr. Trump,

bungle us into some stupid war, which is certainly possible, for you to denigrate them, to fire them, to demean them. You know, in some of these cases, you know, folks that are transgender, maybe transitioned long before they're in the military and, you know, don't like have and are living their lives happily, serving their country, standing side by side with their, you know, fellow warfighters. And now that they have to deal with the humiliation and shame of being kicked out, having to tell the people in their lives why they're being kicked out. I mean, it is despicable. It is a despicable way to treat our service members. It also is a despicable just accusation against transgender Americans, people that you're supposed to represent Donald Trump, that just by the nature of them being transgender, you do not find them to be honest or with integrity.

You know, it is, it's sick. It's a dark day. It's something that I think a lot of us thought we'd turn the page on in this country. And unfortunately, Donald Trump and Pete Hegseth are embarrassing themselves in our country by issuing these accusations. And they are causing real damage in the lives of people who we should be honoring and thanking

for their service. So that's that. That is the waiver. It's official. We have this guidance from the DOD on the transgender service ban. We'll keep you guys posted as more news pops up. Make sure to subscribe to the feed and we'll be seeing you soon.