U.S. Defense Secretary James Mattis arrives as his meeting with Ajit Doval, National Security Advisor of India, at the Pentagon in Washington, U.S., March 24, 2017. REUTERS/Yuri Gripas
Secretary of Defense James Mattis appears to be dragging his feet and ignoring Trump’s calls for a transgender military ban.
Sec. of Defense James Mattis said in a statement:
The Department of Defense has received the Presidential Memorandum, dated August 25, 2017, entitled “Military Service by Transgender Individuals.” The department will carry out the president’s policy direction, in consultation with the Department of Homeland Security. As directed, we will develop a study and implementation plan, which will contain the steps that will promote military readiness, lethality, and unit cohesion, with due regard for budgetary constraints and consistent with applicable law. The soon arriving senior civilian leadership of DOD will play an important role in this effort. The implementation plan will address accessions of transgender individuals and transgender individuals currently serving in the United States military.
Our focus must always be on what is best for the military’s combat effectiveness leading to victory on the battlefield. To that end, I will establish a panel of experts serving within the Departments of Defense and Homeland Security to provide advice and recommendations on the implementation of the president’s direction. Panel members will bring mature experience, most notably in combat and deployed operations, and seasoned judgment to this task. The panel will assemble and thoroughly analyze all pertinent data, quantifiable and non-quantifiable. Further information on the panel will be forthcoming.
Once the panel reports its recommendations and following my consultation with the secretary of Homeland Security, I will provide my advice to the president concerning implementation of his policy direction. In the interim, current policy with respect to currently serving members will remain in place. I expect to issue interim guidance to the force concerning the president’s direction, including any necessary interim adjustments to procedures, to ensure the continued combat readiness of the force until our final policy on this subject is issued.
Trump has now twice told the military to ban transgender persons from serving, and the response from his own Defense Secretary is that the current policy will stay and he will think it over after establishing a panel of experts.
In other words, that transgender ban is probably never going to become a reality. Trump suggested a direction, but Mattis could theoretically drag his feet on advising the President and implementing any policy changes.
The President is being virtually ignored by his own cabinet, as the President is no longer a national policy maker. He is an obstacle to be worked around.
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