Pete Hegseth is dialed in. He’s not going down without a fight.
And Secretary of Defense Hegseth makes a threat that sent this federal judge into hiding.
In a bold move, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth declared on Wednesday that Pentagon lawyers are gearing up to contest a federal judge’s recent ruling that blocks the Trump administration from expelling transgender troops from the armed forces. The announcement signals a brewing legal showdown over the controversial policy.
The drama kicked off earlier this week when a Washington, DC, federal judge struck down President Trump’s executive order reinstating a ban on transgender individuals serving in the military. The judge didn’t hold back, labeling the directive unconstitutional and “soaked in animus.”
Hegseth, undeterred by the judicial smackdown, took to X to rally support. “We are appealing this decision, and we will win,” he posted, doubling down on the administration’s stance.
The Pentagon chief had already been laying the groundwork for the policy shift. Last month, he began crafting a strategy to enforce Trump’s Jan. 27 executive order, which bars anyone identifying as a gender different from their birth s*x from serving or joining the military, citing concerns over mental fitness.
But on Tuesday, US District Judge Ana Reyes threw a wrench into those plans. She issued an order halting the discharge of transgender service members and set a tight deadline—Friday—for the administration to appeal before her preliminary injunction takes hold.
Reyes, a Biden appointee, didn’t mince words in her scathing critique. “Its language is unabashedly demeaning, its policy stigmatizes transgender persons as inherently unfit, and its conclusions bear no relation to fact,” she wrote.
She pointed to a bitter twist: “The cruel irony is that thousands of transgender servicemembers have sacrificed — some risking their lives — to ensure for others the very equal protection rights the Military Ban seeks to deny them.”
The Defense Department pegs the number of transgender active-duty troops at around 4,200—roughly 0.2% of the military.
The ban zeroes in on those with “a current diagnosis or history of, or exhibit symptoms consistent with, gender dysphoria,” according to a Pentagon memo unearthed in court documents.
Before Reyes’ ruling, the Pentagon had mapped out a timeline: identify transgender service members by March 26 and boot them out by June 25. Now, that plan hangs in limbo.
Hegseth and Trump have framed the ban as a safeguard for military readiness, but Reyes saw it differently. She argued that “leaders have used concern for military readiness to deny marginalized persons the privilege of serving.”
The legal fight stems from a lawsuit brought by six active-duty service members, backed by GLBTQ Legal Advocates & Defenders and the National Center for Lesbian Rights. Their challenge has now scored a major win—at least for now.
Reyes wrapped up her hefty 79-page ruling with a crisp takeaway: “The Court’s opinion is long, but its premise is simple. In the self-evident truth that all people are created equal, all means all. Nothing more. And certainly nothing less.”
Not everyone’s cheering the decision, though. White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller vented his frustration on X, fuming, “District court judges have now decided they are in command of the Armed Forces … is there no end to this madness?”
This isn’t the first time the issue has ping-ponged through policy and courts. The Obama administration opened the door for transgender troops to serve openly.
Trump, during his first stint as president, slammed it shut with a ban on enlistments—though he allowed those already in uniform to stay, serve as their identified gender, and access medical care. The Supreme Court later greenlit that policy before Biden dismantled it entirely.
With the Pentagon now poised to appeal, the fate of transgender service members remains a battlefield—one that’s far from settled.
Stay tuned to the Conservative Column.
