President Trump: I’m doing the military a favour by banning transgender troops

President Trump has said he is trying to do the military “a great favour” by banning out transgender people from serving.

Trump enraged LGBT activists last week by announcing a ban on transgender people serving in the US military.

In a string of Twitter posts, the President claimed that the military “cannot be burdened with the tremendous medical costs and disruption that transgender would entail”.

(Getty)

The decision, which was allegedly made to appease anti-LGBT Republican lawmakers, has distressed the thousands of transgender people who are already serving in the armed forces.

In a new statement today, the President said he has “great respect for the community” but that he thinks he is doing a “great favour” to the military by attempting to ban trans people from serving openly.

He said: “I have great respect for the community… I think I’ve had great support, or I’ve had great support from that community. I got a lot of votes.

“But the transgender, the military’s working on it now… It’s been a very difficult situation and I think I’m doing a lot of people a favour by coming out and just saying it.”

He added: “As you know, it’s been a very complicated issue for the military, and I think I’m doing the military a great favour.”

A poll last week found that a majority of military families oppose the ban. 

The Admiral of the US Coast Guard last month said he would defy the ban, and said he had personally spoken to all out trans members of the Coast Guard.