Defense Secretary Jim Mattis is reportedly expected to advise President Trump to continue allowing transgender service members to serve in the military, clashing with Trump’s call to ban transgender individuals from serving.
Mattis will likely recommend that the transgender members remain in the military when he meets with Trump to provide a briefing on the topic, two U.S. officials told the Washington Post.
Trump sent out a series of tweets last year in July, calling for a ban transgender troops in the military. The tweets were followed by a directive that ordered the military to “return to the longstanding policy and practice of military service by transgender individuals that was in place prior to June 2016.”
The order provided Mattis an opportunity to advise the president on the new policy and requested that Mattis construct a plan by Wednesday.
The ban has been blocked or partially blocked by a number of lawsuits and the military was permitted to accept transgender recruits at the beginning of 2018.
The Pentagon said that Mattis will meet with Trump sometime this week to provide his suggestions to the president.
“This is a complex issue, and the secretary is taking his time to consider the information he’s been given,” Dana White, a spokesperson for Mattis, told reporters Thursday. “It’s an important issue, and again, he sees all of his decisions through the lens of lethality.”
Trump is expected to make an announcement afterward, although it is not certain when he will do so.
