US President Donald Trump on Monday signed a series of executive orders targeting the \u201cdiversity, equity, and inclusion\u201d (DEI) policy in the military. This includes reinstating thousands of soldiers expelled for refusing COVID-19 vaccines during the pandemic.<\/p>\n
Earlier Monday, Pete Hegseth, who narrowly won enough votes to become defense secretary, referred to the names of Confederate generals once used for two key bases in remarks to reporters as he entered the Pentagon on his first full day in office.<\/p>\n
Trump signed the decrees on his way back to Washington, D.C., from Miami.<\/p>\n
One of the decrees Trump signed said that expressing a \u201cgender identity\u201d different from an individual\u2019s sex at birth did not meet military standards.<\/p>\n
While the order banned the use of \u201cinvented\u201d pronouns in the military, it did not address basic questions such as whether transgender soldiers currently serving in the military would be allowed to remain and, if not, how they would be removed.<\/p>\n
During his first term, Trump announced that he would ban transgender soldiers from serving in the military. He has not fully implemented this ban\u2014his administration has frozen their hiring while allowing serving personnel to remain.<\/p>\n
Biden overturned the decision when he took office in 2021.<\/p>\n
According to Department of Defense data, there are about 1.3 million active-duty personnel in the military. Transgender rights advocates say there are about 15,000 transgender service members, while officials say the number is in the thousands.<\/p>\n
When Trump announced his first ban in 2017, he said the military should focus on \u201cdecisive and overwhelming victory\u201d without being burdened with the \u201cenormous medical costs and disruptions\u201d of having transgender personnel.<\/p>\n
Changes are coming<\/b><\/p>\n
Hegseth promised to bring major changes to the Pentagon and made the elimination of DEI from the military a top priority.<\/p>\n
Trump\u2019s decree on ending DEI in the military emphasized that service academies must teach that \u201cAmerica and its founding documents remain the most powerful force for good in human history.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Air Force announced on Sunday that it would continue to train trainees using a video about the first Black airmen in the US military, known as the Tuskegee Airmen, which was vetted for compliance with Trump\u2019s ban on DEI initiatives.<\/p>\n
Hegseth was warmly greeted on the steps of the Pentagon by Air Force General C.Q. Brown, the top US military official he criticized in his recent book. Asked if he would fire Brown, Hegseth joked that he was standing right next to him.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m standing right next to him right now. I look forward to working with him,\u201d he said, patting Brown on the back.<\/p>\n
Reuters had previously reported on the possibility of mass layoffs of senior ranks, which Hegseth had repeatedly rejected during the approval process.<\/p>\n
While speaking to reporters, Hegseth referred to Fort Moore and Fort Liberty by their previous names, Fort Benning and Fort Bragg.<\/p>\n
These names, which honor Confederate officers, were changed under former President Joe Biden as part of an effort to revisit US history and Confederate heritage.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think of the soldiers in Guam, Germany, Fort Benning, and Fort Bragg,\u201d Hegseth said.<\/p>\n
Much of Hegseth\u2019s focus at the Pentagon could be within the military, including fulfilling Trump\u2019s decree to bring back soldiers demobilized for refusing COVID vaccinations.<\/p>\n
Thousands of service members were suspended from the army after the Pentagon made vaccination mandatory in 2021.<\/p>\n
American Iron Dome<\/b><\/p>\n
Trump also signed an executive order \u201cmandating the development of an \u2018American Iron Dome.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
The short-range Iron Dome air defense system was built by Israel\u2019s Rafael Advanced Defense Systems with US support and is designed to intercept rockets fired by Hamas from Gaza into Israel.<\/p>\n
Each unit, towed by trucks, fires radar-guided missiles to destroy short-range threats such as rockets, mortars, and drones from the air.<\/p>\n
The system determines whether a rocket will hit a populated area. If not, the rocket is ignored and allowed to land harmlessly.<\/p>\n
Such an endeavor is said to take years to implement in the US.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
US President Donald Trump on Monday signed a series of executive orders targeting the \u201cdiversity, equity, and inclusion\u201d (DEI) policy in the military. This includes reinstating thousands of soldiers expelled for refusing COVID-19 vaccines during the pandemic. Earlier Monday, Pete Hegseth, who narrowly won enough votes to become defense secretary, referred to the names of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7488,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ep_exclude_from_search":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[176],"tags":[5609,5605,5612,5617,5607,5616,5602,5603,319,5604,5615,5610,5611,503,1981,1112,5614,823,3667,5608,5618,5606,5613,5619,5620],"class_list":["post-7487","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-america","tag-air-defense","tag-and-inclusion","tag-c-q-brown","tag-confederate-generals","tag-covid-19-vaccines","tag-defense-secretary","tag-dei","tag-diversity","tag-donald-trump","tag-equity","tag-executive-order","tag-fort-benning","tag-fort-bragg","tag-headline","tag-iron-dome","tag-military","tag-military-policy","tag-pentagon","tag-pete-hegseth","tag-reinstatement","tag-service-academies","tag-transgender-ban","tag-transgender-soldiers","tag-tuskegee-airmen","tag-vaccine-mandate"],"yoast_head":"\n