Donald Trump to tell Pentagon it has six months to expel transgender people from the military

President Trump has given the US armed forces six months to implement a ban on transgender servicemen and women the White House deems as “non-deployable”.

One month after Mr Trump announced a ban on transgender people serving in the US military via Twitter, he has issued a two-and-a-half page memo explaining how the decision is to be implemented.

According to the Wall Street Journal, the guidance note will give the Pentagon powers to deny admittance to transgender people and halt spending on medical treatment for those currently serving their country.

When considering a service member’s “deployability”, defence secretary James Mattis must now remove them if they are unable to serve in a warzone, join training exercises or serve on a ship for six months. Being transgender, the memo says, is a hindrance to all three requirements, claim sources.

Details of the ban were made public on the same day that a car ploughed into protesters at a vigil in Missouri honouring a black transgender woman who was shot dead by police. The white male driver was arrested after his Mercedes struck three of the demonstrators.

They suffered minor injuries but refused medical attention. The St Louis vigil was held after the death on Tuesday of Kenneth “Kiwi” Herring, who was killed by police called to a domestic incident in which the victim allegedly wounded an officer with a knife.

Mr Mattis has reportedly been given six months to enforce the new regulations. Washington analysts had thought the president would back off from his stance following the backlash over his tweet. In it, Mr Trump said he intended to reinstate the ban on transgender military service that was lifted last year by his predecessor, Barack Obama.

“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 US Military,” he wrote on July 26.

“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,” he added.

Transgender rights campaigner Sue Fulton hit back at the White House move, insisting it was unenforceable.

“Transgender people are just as deployable as other service members,” Ms Fulton, former president of the LGBT military organisation Sparta, told the Journal. “Other service members may undergo procedures when they are at home base, just as other service members schedule shoulder surgery or gall bladder surgery.” She added that there were no “ongoing treatments” for transgender individuals that would cause them to be non-deployable.