Executive Order: Prioritizing Military Excellence And Readiness (Donald Trump, 2025)

From Ballotpedia
Jump to: navigation, search
Donald Trump's executive orders
(second term)
Recent executive orders:
Fostering the Future for American Children and Families
•
Modifying Reciprocal Tariff Rates Consistent With the Economic and Trade Arrangement Between the United States and the People's Republic of China
•
Executive Order: Modifying Duties Addressing the Synthetic Opioid Supply Chain in the People's Republic of China
Previous executive orders:
Executive orders by category:
First day • First 100 days • Revokes previous order • The administrative state • Education • Energy and the environment • Foreign policy • Health • Immigration • Policing and criminal justice • Technology • Trade and tariffs
Additional reading:
Donald Trump's Cabinet • Confirmation process for Cabinet nominees • Confirmation votes by senator • Key legislation • Ambassadors • Special envoys • Multistate lawsuits

Executive Order: Prioritizing Military Excellence And Readiness is an executive order that President Donald Trump (R) issued on January 27, 2025, during his second term in office.[1]

Executive orders are directives the president writes to officials within the executive branch requiring them to take or stop some action related to policy or management. They are numbered, published in the Federal Register, cite the authority by which the president is making the order, and the Office of Management and Budget issues budgetary impact analyses for each order.[2][3] Click here to read more about executive orders issued during Trump's second term.

Text of the order

The section below displays the text of the order. Click here to view the order as published on the White House website.

“

By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, and as Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces of the United States, and to ensure the readiness and effectiveness of our Armed Forces, it is hereby ordered:

Section 1. Purpose. 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. 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.

Recently, however, the Armed Forces have 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. Longstanding Department of Defense (DoD) policy (DoD Instruction (DoDI) 6130.03) provides that it is the policy of the DoD to ensure that service members are “[f]ree of medical conditions or physical defects that may reasonably be expected to require excessive time lost from duty for necessary treatment or hospitalization.” As a result, 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. 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. 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.

For the sake of our Nation and the patriotic Americans who volunteer to serve it, military service must be reserved for those mentally and physically fit for duty. The Armed Forces must adhere to high mental and physical health standards to ensure our military can deploy, fight, and win, including in austere conditions and without the benefit of routine medical treatment or special provisions.

Sec. 2. Policy. It is the policy of the United States Government to establish high standards for troop readiness, lethality, cohesion, honesty, humility, uniformity, and integrity. This policy is inconsistent with the medical, surgical, and mental health constraints on individuals with gender dysphoria. This policy is also inconsistent with shifting pronoun usage or use of pronouns that inaccurately reflect an individual’s sex.

Sec. 3. Definitions. The definitions in the Executive Order of January 20, 2025 (Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government) shall apply to this order.

Sec. 4. Implementation. (a) Within 60 days of the date of this order, the Secretary of Defense (Secretary) shall update DoDI 6130.03 Volume 1 (Medical Standards for Military Service: Appointment, Enlistment, or Induction (May 6, 2018), Incorporating Change 5 of May 28, 2024) and DoDI 6130.03 Volume 2 (Medical Standards for Military Service: Retention (September 4, 2020), Incorporating Change 1 of June 6, 2022) to reflect the purpose and policy of this Order.

(b) The Secretary shall promptly issue directives for DoD to end invented and identification-based pronoun usage to best achieve the policy outlined in section 2 of this order.

(c) Within 30 days of the date of this order, the Secretary shall:

(i) identify all additional steps and issue guidance necessary to fully implement this order; and

(ii) submit to the President through the Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs a report that summarizes these steps.

(d) Absent extraordinary operational necessity, the Armed Forces shall neither allow males to use or share sleeping, changing, or bathing facilities designated for females, nor allow females to use or share sleeping, changing, or bathing facilities designated for males.

(e) Within 30 days of the issuance of the respective updates, directives, and guidance under subsections (a), (b), and (c) of this section, the Secretary of Homeland Security shall, with respect to the Coast Guard, issue updates, directives, and guidance consistent with the updates, directives, and guidance issued under subsections (a), (b), and (c) of this section.

Sec. 5. Implementing the Revocation of Executive Order 14004. (a) Pursuant to the Executive Order of January 20, 2025 (Initial Rescissions of Harmful Executive Orders and Actions), Executive Order 14004 of January 25, 2021 (Enabling All Qualified Americans To Serve Their Country in Uniform), has been revoked. Accordingly, all policies, directives, and guidance issued pursuant to Executive Order 14004 shall be rescinded to the extent inconsistent with the provisions of this order.

(b) The Secretary and, with respect to the Coast Guard, the Secretary of Homeland Security, shall take all necessary steps to implement the revocations described in subsection (a) of this section and ensure that all military departments and services fully comply with the provisions of this order.

Sec. 6. Severability. If any provision of this order, or the application of any provision to any person or circumstance, is held to be invalid, the remainder of this order and the application of its provisions to any other persons or circumstances shall not be affected thereby.

Sec. 7. General Provisions. (a) Nothing in this order shall be construed to impair or otherwise affect:

(i) the authority granted by law to an executive department or agency, or the head thereof; or

(ii) the functions of the Director of the Office of Management and Budget relating to budgetary, administrative, or legislative proposals.

(b) This order shall be implemented consistent with applicable law and subject to the availability of appropriations.

(c) This order is not intended to, and does not, create any right or benefit, substantive or procedural, enforceable at law or in equity by any party against the United States, its departments, agencies, or entities, its officers, employees, or agents, or any other person. [1][4]

”

Noteworthy lawsuits

Supreme Court overturns preliminary injunction in gender dysphoria military service case

See also: Supreme Court emergency orders related to the Trump administration, 2025

On January 27, 2025, President Donald Trump (R) issued an executive order titled Prioritizing Military Excellence And Readiness, which said, "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." In February 2025, the Department of Defense issued a memorandum banning "individuals who have a current diagnosis or history of, or exhibit symptoms consistent with, gender dysphoria" from military service.[5]

Seven transgender military members, a transgender person who wished to join the military, and the Gender Justice League filed a lawsuit in the United States District Court for the Western District of Washington challenging the policy. In the lawsuit, they said the federal government was banning individuals from military service based on sex and transgender status, and that this action violated "the equal protection and due process guarantees of the Fifth Amendment and the free speech guarantee of the First Amendment."[6] On March 27, 2025, Judge Ben Settle granted the plaintiffs' request for a preliminary injunction on the federal government's policy.[7]

The federal government then filed an emergency application with the Supreme Court, saying the policy "draws classifications based on a medical condition (gender dysphoria) and related medical interventions," and did not ban individuals from serving on the basis of their transgender or sex status. The federal government said it met the rational-basis review required for drawing classifications based on a medical condition.[8] On May 6, 2025, the Supreme Court granted the federal government's request in a 6-3 decision and stayed Settle's order. Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, and Ketanji Brown Jackson dissented.[9]

Executive orders in the second term of the Trump administration

November 2025

October 2025


September 2025

August 2025

July 2025

June 2025

May 2025

April 2025

March 2025

February 2025

January 2025


Historical context

See also: Donald Trump's executive orders and actions, 2025

Overview, 1789-2025

The following chart shows the number of executive orders and average executive orders per year issued by each president of the United States from 1789 to 2025.

Average number of executive orders issued each year by president, 1921-2025

The following chart visualizes the average number of executive orders issued each year between 1921 and 2025, as noted in the table in the section above. The number of executive orders issued declined during this time period with Presidents Barack Obama (D) and George W. Bush issuing the fewest on average at 35 and 36 each year, respectively.

Executive orders issued over time, 2001-2025

The chart below displays the number of executive orders issued over time by Biden, Trump, Obama, and Bush.


See also

Footnotes

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 White House, "Prioritizing Military Excellence And Readiness," January 27, 2025
  2. ↑ Cooper, Phillip. (2014). By Order of the President: The Use and Abuse of Executive Direct Action. Lawrence, KS: University Press of Kansas. (pgs. 21-22)
  3. ↑ USA Today, "Presidential memoranda vs. executive orders. What's the difference?" January 24, 2017
  4. ↑ Note: This text is quoted verbatim from the original source. Any inconsistencies are attributable to the original source.
  5. ↑ Department of Defense, "Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness Memorandum," February 26, 2025
  6. ↑ CourtListener, "Shilling v. United States of America," April 7, 2025
  7. ↑ CourtListener, "Shilling v. United States of America," March 27, 2025
  8. ↑ Supreme Court, "APPLICATION FOR A STAY OF THE INJUNCTION ISSUED BY THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE WESTERN DISTRICT OF WASHINGTON," accessed May 13, 2025
  9. ↑ Supreme Court, "No. 24A1030," accessed May 13, 2025
v • e
Trump Administration (second term)
Overviews
Cabinet
Members not requiring Senate confirmation

Members nominated by the Senate


Retrieved from "https://ballotpedia.org/wiki/index.php?title=Executive_Order:_Prioritizing_Military_Excellence_And_Readiness_(Donald_Trump,_2025)&oldid=10378483"