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Trump vows to rid military of ‘transgender ideology’, build ‘Iron Dome’ missile shield
The US president also signed orders reinstating troops dismissed for refusing to take Covid vaccines and extending a crackdown on diversity
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US President Donald Trump has signed an executive order ridding the military of what he called “transgender ideology”, in a potentially major setback for LGBTQ rights.
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In a series of orders related to the military that Trump told reporters he had signed on Air Force One, he also called for the building of a US version of Israel’s Iron Dome missile defence system.
The Republican president signed further orders reinstating service members dismissed for refusing to take the Covid vaccine, and extending a wider government crackdown on diversity programmes to the armed forces.
“To ensure that we have the most lethal fighting force in the world, we will get transgender ideology the hell out of our military,” Trump told a Republican congressional retreat in Miami earlier on Monday
Trump has previously promised to bring back a ban on transgender troops in the United States, but it was not immediately clear what specific steps were contained in the new order, which has not yet been published.
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A White House official with him said the order involved “eliminating gender radicalism in the military”.
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