During his Inaugural Address on January 20, President Donald Trump pledged, “Like in 2017, we will again build the strongest military the world has ever seen.” Just a few weeks into his second term, he is already making good on that promise.
Among Trump’s flurry of early executive orders were several actions aimed at reversing the Biden administration’s efforts to turn the military into an incubator of DEI and other far-left ideologies that demoralized the ranks and weakened America’s defense capabilities.
Perhaps Trump’s most important order dealt with the spread of DEI in the military and the elevation of “equity” over merit by the Biden administration’s military leadership. According to government records, the Pentagon spent $86 million on DEI programs during FY 2023. For FY 2025, the Biden White House had requested a jaw-dropping $162 million for DEI.
“In recent years civilian and uniformed leadership alike have implemented DEI programs,” Trump’s order states. “These actions undermine leadership, merit, and unit cohesion, thereby eroding lethality and force readiness. They also violate Americans’ consciences by engaging in invidious race and sex discrimination.”
Accordingly, Trump mandated that the Department of Defense “abolish every DEI office” and conduct an internal review of all instances of race and sex discrimination that occurred in pursuit of the Biden administration’s DEI agenda.
Another executive order, entitled “Prioritizing Excellence and Readiness,” acknowledged that under the Biden administration, “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.”
To address this issue, that order reinstated the ban on transgender-identifying individuals serving in the military which Trump had first enacted in 2017, but which Biden quickly revoked upon taking office. “Expressing a false ‘gender identity’ divergent from an individual’s sex cannot satisfy the rigorous standards necessary for military service,” the order states. “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.”
This executive order immediately ends the “bathroom controversy” in the military and ensures taxpayers are not funding so-called “gender-affirming care” among the ranks. A recent Congressional Research Service report revealed that from 2016 to 2021, the Defense Department spent about $15 million on transition-related medical procedures for 1,892 active duty service members.
Fulfilling another campaign promise, Trump also signed an executive order reinstating military personnel who were discharged for refusing the COVID-19 vaccine.
In August 2021, Biden Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin mandated the vaccine for every military service member. While the Pentagon reported that this mandate led to the “forced separation” of 8,200 troops, other reports indicated that the actual number might be much larger – as high as 60,000 in the Army alone.
Though Austin later rescinded the mandate in 2023, many affected service members had already moved on to other endeavors, and so as few as 100 returned to the military. Trump’s order, along with allowing service members to be reinstated, also enables “those service members reinstated under this section to revert to their former rank and receive full back pay, benefits, bonus payments, or compensation.”
David Hacker, Vice President of Litigation and Senior Counsel at First Liberty Institute praised Trump’s decision, stating that those who fought for justice are “grateful to President Trump for standing with our military and restoring these brave, faithful warriors.”
In another crucially important and forward-looking policy, Trump also signed an executive order on building “The Iron Dome for America.” Recognizing the significance of Israel’s state-of-the-art missile defense shield of the same name, Trump noted that “The threat of attack by ballistic, hypersonic, and cruise missiles, and other advanced aerial attacks, remains the most catastrophic threat facing the United States.”
Accordingly, the order directs the Secretary of Defense to conduct an immediate review of America’s missile defense capabilities and “submit to the president a reference architecture, capabilities-based requirements, and an implementation plan for the next-generation missile defense.”
While Trump’s ability to implement this “American Iron Dome” is ultimately dependent on cooperation from Congress, it nonetheless signals his prioritization of missile defense after four years of neglect under the Biden administration.
Trump’s efforts to refocus the military toward defending against America’s enemies rather than advancing left-wing political priorities are already bearing fruit. After years in which the military saw major recruiting shortfalls, the Army marked its best recruiting month in 15 years this past December.
Ultimately, as Trump has repeatedly stated, bolstering the strength of the military is about stopping wars as much as winning them. “We will measure our success not only by the battles we win but also by the wars that we end – and perhaps most importantly, the wars we never get into,” he said during his inaugural address.
The erosion of military readiness and capability under Joe Biden made those wars more likely, a fact clearly seen by the explosion of conflict in Ukraine and Israel. By re-establishing the United States as the world’s supreme fighting force, Trump is paving the way for a more peaceful and prosperous future.
Ben Solis is the pen name of an international affairs journalist, historian, and researcher.
