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    Trump's transgender order surprises even Republican allies

    Trump's transgender order surprises even Republican allies

    by Sarah Westwood | Jul 27, 2017, 12:01 AM[


    President Trump's unexpected announcement Wednesday that the military would no longer accept transgender service members left many in the administration wondering why he had suddenly arrived at such a conclusion and how he planned to implement such a consequential policy.

    Republicans on Capitol Hill acknowledged Wednesday that the White House had been reviewing whether taxpayers should fund gender reassignment treatments as GOP lawmakers in the House debated a provision in their spending bill that would block the Pentagon from paying for the surgeries.

    But none said they expected the president to come out so forcefully against all transgender military service, and many publicly expressed dismay at the way Trump handled the sensitive political issue.

    White House press secretary Sarah Sanders could not answer questions on Wednesday about whether transgender service members who are already deployed would be recalled home and could not predict when the Pentagon would issue guidance explaining its shift away from the Obama-era policy.

    "Look, I think sometimes you have to make decisions," Sanders told reporters at the White House. "And once [Trump] made a decision, he didn't feel it was necessary to hold that decision."

    Trump's surprising decision, unveiled in a series of tweets early Wednesday morning, baffled his allies all the more because the White House had opposed an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act put forward by Rep. Vicky Hartzler, R-Mo., that would have prevented the Pentagon from paying for transgender medical treatments.

    The amendment was defeated on July 13 when two dozen Republicans joined with Democrats in voting it down, but the issue has resurfaced in House discussions of a larger spending bill.

    Hartzler told the Washington Examiner that a "significant number of members" were clamoring for a resolution to the hot-button issue, which had divided conservative and centrist Republicans.

    "We needed to settle this issue," she said.

    While Hartzler said she and other conservatives had hoped the president would support their efforts to limit the Pentagon's embrace of transgender service members, she said "we didn't know the exact timing" of when Trump would reveal a decision.

    Trump's tweets ultimately ruffled feathers among Republican lawmakers.

    Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., criticized the president's statement as "unclear" and questioned why Trump would consider forcing transgender service members who had already undergone training to leave the force. The White House has yet to explain what will happen to the thousands of transgender service members presently serving in the military.

    Trump unveiled his decision on transgender service members on a day when Defense Secretary James Mattis was away on vacation, further stoking speculation that the policy change did not have the full backing of the Pentagon. Sanders said Wednesday that Mattis was "immediately informed" that the president had chosen to move forward with the ban this week, and she suggested Trump had leaned more heavily on his national security team to shape the decision than he had on his defense secretary.

    A House aide told the Washington Examiner that Mattis called Hartzler to discuss concerns about transgender military service on July 13, when her amendment to the NDAA failed.

    "At no time did Vicky receive any assurances from the secretary that this issue would be addressed," the aide said of their conversation.

    The Republican aide hinted that the transgender military policy was poised to become a sticking point in talks about the spending bill before Trump's tweets. "There were several members who indicated they would not support the bill unless the transgender policy was addressed," he said.

    Although Vice President Mike Pence was linked in several reports this week to a behind-the-scenes lobbying effort against Pentagon coverage for transgender medical services, a spokesman for the vice president told Foreign Policy on Tuesday that Pence "has been focused on healthcare."

    "I am not aware of him speaking to any members about this," the spokesman said.

    Other White House aides refused to comment Wednesday about the timing of or reasoning for the president's sudden and severe turn against transgender military service, which appeared to go further than the limited funding restrictions for which conservative lawmakers had been advocating. Their silence comes amid a staffing shakeup in the White House communications office that has so far seen two aides, including outgoing press secretary Sean Spicer, resign their positions.

    Incoming communications director Anthony Scaramucci, who does not officially begin his new job until Aug. 15, has threatened to fire any staffer suspected of leaking as he reconfigures the White House press shop to be more aggressive and more personally loyal to the president. His efforts have had an apparent chilling effect on press aides, obscuring from public view many of the changes that Scaramucci is likely installing in the West Wing.

    Trump's transgender tweets also provided a brief distraction from his protracted feud with Attorney General Jeff Sessions, which has threatened to alienate many of the president's conservative supporters who have long held Sessions as the fiercest advocate for their immigration agenda.

    Trump has excoriated Sessions over the past week in interviews, tweets and public remarks for the attorney general's decision four months ago to recuse himself from the investigation into Russian meddling.

    Sanders said Wednesday that Trump and Sessions have not spoken this week even though the attorney general journeyed to the White House earlier in the day for a meeting with other senior officials.

    A source close to Sessions' team told the Washington Examiner on Wednesday that the attorney general is unlikely to resign over the tensions.

    "I think he's staying," the source said.

    But Scaramucci hinted Wednesday evening that the tensions between Trump and Sessions would likely reach a boiling point as soon as next week.

    Trump's transgender order surprises even Republican allies
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    Senior Member Judy's Avatar
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    Glad to see Sessions ordered investigations of leakers and strongly recommend he withdraw his recusal from the nothing-burger and retake control of the Justice Department.
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    Transgender serviceman blasts Trump administration for anti-transgender military strategy


    Staff Sergeant Logan Ireland railed against President Donald Trump’s decision to ban transgender people from serving in the armed forces in a Wednesday interview with Air Force Times.

    “I would like to see them try to kick me out of my military,” Ireland told the magazine. “You are not going to deny me my right to serve my country when I am fully qualified and able and willing to give my life.”

    He added, “For the president to deny an able-bodied, fully qualified person the inherent right to raise their right hand and serve their country, potentially giving their own life for our freedoms, is doing this country an injustice.”

    “I would personally love for my president to meet me so I can tell him about myself,” Ireland continued, “and the 15,500 honorably serving transgender military members that are fighting right now for their liberties and their country.”

    Ireland, a current security forces airman who served a tour in Afghanistan, and rose to political fame in 2015 after he was featured in a New York Times documentary titled “Transgender, at War and in Love.”

    Ireland’s story was told in the documentary — a story of falling in love with his transgender spouse, Army Corporal Laila Villanueva — and since then, Ireland has been a public advocate for being transgender and proudly serving his country.

    In a series of tweets Wednesday morning, President Donald Trump announced a ban on transgender people serving in the U.S. military “in any capacity.”

    He wrote:

    “After consultation with my Generals and military experts, please be advised that the United States Government will not accept or allow Transgender individuals to serve in any capacity in the U.S. Military. Our military must be focused on decisive and overwhelming victory and cannot be burdened with the tremendous medical costs and disruption that transgender in the military would entail. Thank you.”


    Transgender serviceman blasts Trump administration for anti-transgender military strategy Sarah Taylor 5 hours 105
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    MW
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    Quote Originally Posted by Judy View Post
    Glad to see Sessions ordered investigations of leakers and strongly recommend he withdraw his recusal from the nothing-burger and retake control of the Justice Department.
    What does this have to do with transgenders in the military?

    What you're asking is for Attorney General Sessions to surrender his principles and integrity to appease someone who has backstabbed him for three days running. If he's half the man I know him to be, he won't cave to such childish tactics.

    "The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing" ** Edmund Burke**

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    Former Transgender: Trump 'Made Right Decision,' 'Military Is a Fighting Force, Not a Gender Clinic'


    By Craig Bannister | July 26, 2017 | 1:12 PM EDT


    Heyer regrets having had sex-change surgery.

    A man who lived for eight years as a transgender female says President Donald Trump did the right thing for the U.S. military, as well as for all Americans, by banning transgenders from serving in the military.

    Walt Heyer, who has transitioned back to his birth gender, writes in a commentary that his personal experience leads him to support Trump’s announcement:

    “I think he made the right decision—and as someone who lived as trans-female for several years, I should know.”


    Heyer says allowing transgenders to serve is “devastating…to the fitness, readiness, and moral of our combat read troops.”

    “The military is a Fighting Force, Not a Gender Clinic,” Heyer says, adding that concept of taxpayer-funded transition surgery for service members defies logic:

    “Paying for transition-related surgeries
    for military service members and their families
    is beyond comprehensible.”

    Finally, Heyer warns that Trump’s ban protects Americans from the activists’ next demands – that all of government and private enterprise be forced to fund sex-change surgery:

    “If the military had been forced to pay, the advocates would have used this as leverage to press every other entity—both government and commercial—to pay for sex change surgeries as well.”


    Heyer’s website, SexChangeRegret.com, “offers encouragement and hope for others who want to detransition back to their innate birth gender.”

    http://www.cnsnews.com/blog/craig-ba...rce-not-gender

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    Senior Member Judy's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by MW View Post
    What does this have to do with transgenders in the military?

    What you're asking is for Attorney General Sessions to surrender his principles and integrity to appease someone who has backstabbed him for three days running. If he's half the man I know him to be, he won't cave to such childish tactics.
    I think you're mistaken on several fronts. The article devotes several paragraphs to Sessions and Trump disagreement over Sessions recusal on all things Russian. That's why I addressed it. The recusal was not a principles or integrity issue, it was a decision to appease the Obamaites in the US Justice Department's Ethics Committee and members of Congress who are either Trump Haters or Anti-Trumpers.

    The recusal was a mistake, the sooner it's corrected the better off Sessions will be, the better off this Administration will be, and the far better off the people of the United States will be. The recusal handed absolute control of all things Russian in the US Department of Justice to un-electeds with agendas opposing the Trump Agenda.

    There are no crimes, Sessions knows that, this is all a hoax and a big fat nothing-burger, but yet his recusal from the nothing-burger has removed him from running his Department in major aspects, incited a witch hunt escalation against the Presidency as well as private citizsens, and has compromised in serious ways both our national security and foreign policy as it relates to Russia. That involves Syria, North Korea, Iran, terrorism, intelligence-sharing, trade and better relations where they are acutely needed.

    Sessions meant well, but it was the wrong decision, a mistake, one he can easily correct and should do so swiftly.
    Last edited by Judy; 07-27-2017 at 10:44 AM.
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    MW
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    Quote Originally Posted by Judy View Post
    I think you're mistaken on several fronts. The article devotes several paragraphs to Sessions and Trump disagreement over Sessions recusal on all things Russian. That's why I addressed it. The recusal was not a principles or integrity issue, it was a decision to appease the Obamaites in the US Justice Department's Ethics Committee and members of Congress who are either Trump Haters or Anti-Trumpers.

    The recusal was a mistake, the sooner it's corrected the better off Sessions will be, the better off this Administration will be, and the far better off the people of the United States will be. The recusal handed absolute control of all things Russian in the US Department of Justice to un-electeds with agendas opposing the Trump Agenda.

    There are no crimes, Sessions knows that, this is all a hoax and a big fat nothing-burger, but yet his recusal from the nothing-burger has removed him from running his Department in major aspects, incited a witch hunt escalation against the Presidency as well as private citizsens, and has compromised in serious ways both our national security and foreign policy as it relates to Russia. That involves Syria, North Korea, Iran, terrorism, intelligence-sharing, trade and better relations where they are acutely needed.

    Sessions meant well, but it was the wrong decision, a mistake, one he can easily correct and should do so swiftly.
    Think what you want ........ but I have the right to disagree. It doesn't really matter what you or I think on Session's recusal. Based on principle, he thinks he did the right thing. That is good enough for me.

    If Trump has a disagreement with Jeff Sessions, then he needs to man up and talk it out face to face. This is not something he needs to air out through social media. Trump seems to talk a lot of about what's "fair" to him ..... well, what about what's "fair" to Jeff Sessions. Is it right for him to destroy the reputation Sessions has spent a lifetime building?

    Jeff Sessions is a good and honorable man that doesn't deserve what Trump is doing to him. Sessions has been our advocate on all issues surrounding immigration/border security long before Trump came into the picture. Trump's childish antics against Sessions with his twitter is not doing him, us, or the country any good.

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    Senior Member Judy's Avatar
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    Sessions has never said why he recused himself, other than this was the recommendation of the Obamaites on the DOJ Ethics Committee. Sessions never said he did it based on principle or integrity.

    To my knowledge, Sessions did not discuss the decision with the President before he announced it, I don't even know if they've discussed it since. Sessions put himself in a trap with the recusal because he can't discuss an ongoing investigation with the President. So you're all messed up on what had actually happened, why it happened, and what the rules are once he made that decision. The only way the President can get a message to Sessions about the recusal or anything Russian is through his public comments.
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    MW
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    I'm calling B.S. on this, Judy. While he certainly can't discuss an ongoing investigation, he can discuss his disgreements with Sessions face to face. Oh, and no I'm not "all messed up" on anything. Just like you, I learned to read as a child and have no problem comprehending what I hear or see. Jeff Sessions feels his recusal was the right thing to do. You don't have to agree with it, although many do.

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    Senior Member Judy's Avatar
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    Sessions may have thought it was the right thing to do, but it's proving itself not to have been. When you make a mistake, you correct it, and the way to do that is withdraw the recusal and run his entire DOJ, not just part of it.
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