President Donald Trump and his administration are transitioning the military away from gender ideology and rewriting admissions requirements. A new memo issued by U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) Secretary Pete Hegseth late last week halted “all new accessions for individuals with a history of gender dysphoria” and paused “all unscheduled, scheduled, or planned medical procedures associated with affirming or facilitating a gender transition for Service members…” Hegseth added, “Individuals with gender dysphoria have volunteered to serve our country and will be treated with dignity and respect.”

The Defense secretary explained in the memo that the DOD’s “mission requires Service members to abide by strict mental and physical standards. The lethality, readiness, and warfighting capability of our Force depends on Service members meeting those standards.” He continued, “The Department must ensure it is building ‘One Force’ without subgroups defined by anything other than ability or mission adherence. Efforts to split our troops along lines of identity weaken our Force and make us vulnerable. Such efforts must not be tolerated or accommodated.”

Hegseth’s memo cites an executive order Trump issued late last month, a week after returning to the White House. “The United States military has a clear mission: to protect the American people and our homeland as the world’s most lethal and effective fighting force,” Trump’s order stated. It continued, “Success in this existential mission requires a singular focus on developing the requisite warrior ethos, and the pursuit of military excellence cannot be diluted to accommodate political agendas or other ideologies harmful to unit cohesion.”

The executive order lamented that, under the Biden administration, the U.S. military has “been afflicted with radical gender ideology to appease activists unconcerned with the requirements of military service like physical and mental health, selflessness, and unit cohesion.” Trump observed in his order that “many mental and physical health conditions are incompatible with active duty, from conditions that require substantial medication or medical treatment to bipolar and related disorders, eating disorders, suicidality, and prior psychiatric hospitalization.”

“Consistent with the military mission and longstanding DoD policy, expressing a false ‘gender identity’ divergent from an individual’s sex cannot satisfy the rigorous standards necessary for military service,” the commander in chief declared. He continued, “Beyond the hormonal and surgical medical interventions involved, adoption of a gender identity inconsistent with an individual’s sex conflicts with a soldier’s commitment to an honorable, truthful, and disciplined lifestyle, even in one’s personal life.” Trump added, “A man’s assertion that he is a woman, and his requirement that others honor this falsehood, is not consistent with the humility and selflessness required of a service member.”

Public support for the military allowing transgender-identifying individuals to serve in the armed forces has steadily declined over the past several years, according to a Gallup poll released this week. Although a majority (58%) of surveyed Americans support openly-transgender-identifying individuals serving in the military, that share is down from 66% in 2021 and 71% in 2019. Support among Republicans, in particular, has cratered, dropping from a steady 43% in both 2021 and 2019 to just 23% this year. Support among Independent voters has also dropped by over 15 percentage points since 2019.

In addition to halting the advance of gender ideology in the armed forces, Trump is also removing activist board members overseeing military academies. “Our Service Academies have been infiltrated by Woke Leftist Ideologues over the last four years. I have ordered the immediate dismissal of the Board of Visitors for the Army, Air Force, Navy, and Coast Guard,” the president wrote in a Truth Social post Monday. He continued, “We will have the strongest Military in History, and that begins by appointing new individuals to these Boards. We must make the Military Academies GREAT AGAIN!”

Last week, shortly before Trump’s announcement, Hegseth confirmed that he met with the leadership at West Point Military Academy, the U.S. Naval Academy, and the U.S. Air Force Academy. “My message was simple: stick to leadership, standards, excellence, war fighting, and readiness. These are MILITARY ACADEMIES, not civilian universities,” the Defense Secretary stated. He continued, “I was impressed by the changes already underway and look forward to visiting each institution. Social Justice and DEI are OUT; History, Engineering, and War Studies are IN.” Hegseth also issued a commitment to “restore the warrior ethos” to the DOD.