President Donald Trump has signed an executive order directing Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth to revise the Pentagon’s policy on transgender troops.
The move likely sets in motion a future ban on their military service.
Mt Trump had tried to impose a ban on transgender troops during his first term, but it was tangled up in the courts for years before being overturned by Joe Biden shortly after he took office.
In his order on Monday, Mr Trump claimed that troops who identify as a gender other than their biological one “conflicts with a soldier’s commitment to an honourable, truthful, and disciplined lifestyle, even in one’s personal life.”
He said that was harmful to military readiness and required a revised policy to address the matter.
Lawyers for transgender troops who challenged the ban in the courts during Mr Trump’s first term have already pledged to fight the new ban.
