President Donald Trump to sign executive order to ban ‘invented’ pronouns in US armed forces

Max Corstorphan
The Nightly
US President Donald Trump is preparing to sign an executive order banning pronouns from the US armed forces.
US President Donald Trump is preparing to sign an executive order banning pronouns from the US armed forces. Credit: AAP

President Donald Trump is preparing to sign a new executive order commencing a war on “invented” pronouns and paving the way for the potential removal of trans people from the US armed forces.

During his first day back in office for his second term, Mr Trump signed an executive order for US Government agencies to only recognise two genders, male and female.

Taking his gender and identity battle further, Mr Trump is reportedly signing another order on Monday local time that could see “trans-identifying” people removed from the US armed forces if they do not identify as male or female, are taking certain medication and define new rules for access to bathrooms and sleeping quarters.

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“Unit cohesion requires high levels of integrity and stability among service members,” a White House document seen by The New York Post reportedly says.

The document, which is understood to preview Mr Trump’s executive order, adds there will be “no accommodation for anything less than resilience, strength, and the ability to withstand extraordinary physical demands”.

“It can take a minimum of 12 months for an individual to complete treatments after transition surgery, which often involves the use of heavy narcotics. During this period, they are not physically capable of meeting military readiness requirements and require ongoing medical care. This is not conducive for deployment or other readiness requirements.”

The document uses the word “trans-identify” not the term transgender.

The order will reportedly direct Secretary of Defence Pete Hegseth to ban the “use of invented and identification-based pronouns”.

It is understood the order, if signed, will ban armed forces members from using a sleeping, changing or bathing facility that is designated for a gender different than the one they were assigned at birth.

The order comes as Mr Trump attempts to remove the “woke” influence of former President Joe Biden on the US armed forces.

Throughout the campaign trail for the 2020 US election, Mr Trump said the US armed forces exists “to win wars, not to be woke”.

Mr Trump had banned transgender Americans from serving in the US armed forces during his first presidency, something Mr Biden revoked when he took office in 2021. Mr Trump then revoked Mr Biden’s revoke when he took office on January 20, 2025.

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