Trump's Chance to Do Right by Transgender Troops

On February 23, 2018, The New York Times posted an article Trump's Chance to Do Right by Transgender Troops about how President Trump might be changing his view on transgender troops. The author starts the article off by saying Jim Mattis, Defense Secretary, stated transgender troops are to be allowed to serve in the U.S Military. The author points out how President Trump has said in the past that he values the advise of his generals and perhaps might change his opinion of letting transgender troops serve our country. A year ago, transgender troops finally got the right to serve for their country as equals and Trump, of course, has taken that away from that minority. The author states “. . . seemed to disparage the transgender enlistees as unsuitable for battle by gratuitously asserting that the military “must be focused on decisive and overwhelming victory” showing that Trump believes transgender troops are incapable to serve this country when transgender people are one of the strongest humans.  His fellow republicans, such as John McCain of Arizona and Orrin Hatch of Utah and a group of 56 retired general and admirals aren’t looking eye to eye about this topic with the Mr. Trump. President Trump also claimed he consulted his generals and military experts before reimposing the transgender ban “But General Dunford told the country’s top commanders that he was not consulted and that Mr. Trump’s decision to declare transgender people no longer welcome “in any capacity” was “unexpected”,” the author states. At the end of the article the author says, “It will be tragic if he clings to his prejudice, forcing transgender people out of the military and back into the shadows.” 

I agree one hundred percent with the author it would be a horrible outcome if President Trump decides to continue to ban transgender troops especially when there aren’t many Americans volunteering to fight for their country and these strong brave soldiers are. The author does a good job showing the arguments of this situation. He shows the different views of the president and of his fellow politicians.

Trump Signs Budget Deal to Raise Spending and Reopen Government

On February 8th, Thomas Kaplan published an article on The New York Times, Thomas Kaplan: Trump Signs Budget To Raise Spending and Reopen Government, about the Senate and what troubles they went through to get a Bill passed. The Bill was a budget deal for the U.S Military. The budget ended up being for $300 billion in additional funds for the next two years for Military and Non-Military programs and $90 billion for the disaster relief for the hurricanes and wildfires from last year. It took the Senate two days to agree on this Bill. In the article, it talks about how Dr. Paul, a republican, thought the budget deal was a horrible idea and felt very angry that the spending for the military is increasing. Other republicans aren’t buying it.The No. 2 Senate Republican called Dr. Paul irresponsible. Senator Brian Schatz, Democrat of Hawaii, tweeted that “Dr Paul voted for a tax bill that blew a 1.5 trillion whole in the budget, now he is shutting the government down for three hours because of the debt” Democrats wanted to stop talking about this new budget for the Military and wanted to at least hold a day to vote on the program DACA. Dr. Paul basically said we will hold a vote for DACA but it needs to be a solution that the president will sign off on.

This article is worth reading about because it informs you on the process of when the government got shut down and also gives you some idea of how far along they are deciding on a solution for DACA.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/08/us/politics/congress-budget-deal-vote.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=a-lede-package-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news