President Trump signed a number of new executive orders Monday night aimed at the U.S. military. The orders have been described in some coverage as part of a campaign to reshape the military itself, but with an institution as vast as the Pentagon, the extent of the changes remain to be seen. Here is a breakdown of what the president signed:
- The Iron Dome for America: This order seeks to deploy a "next-generation missile defense shield" to defend the U.S. against aerial attacks. The defense secretary must submit a plan for the shield within 60 days. This is a follow-up on a campaign promise and part of Trump's "America First" approach. There are many outstanding questions about the practicality of such an effort and what additional protection the U.S. actually needs from intercontinental ballistic missiles, in contrast to Israel's Iron Dome defense.
The Iron Dome in Israel is meant to protect against rockets and short range missiles, not Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles (ICBMs), and although Israel is small, that system cannot protect the entire country. Right now the U.S. has limited defenses against ICBMs through interceptor missiles, most of them based in Alaska and a few in California. The Biden administration moved to upgrade those interceptors to the next generation of weapons. There has been talk about expanding this system to include additional interceptors in either the Midwest or the East Coast. Trump talked in his first administration about expanding missile defense.
The Executive Order appears to go beyond the existing systems and calls for the development of new space-based defenses that would likely take years to deploy. It's not known exactly what Trump means by "Iron Dome" because few details were released but greatly expanding missile defenses — which don't have a great track record in tests — is enormously expensive, possibly $100s of billions or more.
Some missile defense experts say the 60-day review could look at expanding missile defense in space with sensors and interceptors. Also, the plan could include new ground interceptors to handle a growing threat that has been seen in Ukraine: cruise missiles and hypersonic missiles.
- Restoring America's Fighting Force: This order states that the U.S. Armed Forces "should operate free from any preference based on race or sex." It abolishes DEI offices and programs in the Defense Department and the Department of Homeland Security. It prohibits promotion of "divisive concepts," including that "America's founding documents are racist or sexist." On Day 1, President Trump signed an order calling for the end of DEI mandates and programs across the federal government, as NPR's Andrea Hsu reported. Monday's order specifies expectations for the military.
On the abolishment of DEI (Diversity, Equity and Inclusion) programs within the Department of Defense, Trump officials continue to use buzzwords like "woke" to describe the military. But military officials say it's either wrong or an exaggeration. In December, then-Army Secretary Christine Wormuth told NPR, "We spend one hour in basic training on equal opportunity training, and we spend something like 95 hours on rifle marksmanship. We are focused on being lethal, being ready to win wars, and I think anyone who comes to our units, that's what they'll see our soldiers focused on."
The U.S. military has long said its fighting force should look like America, with all races and ethnicities included in the ranks at all levels. Military officials have long tried to make its officer corps more diverse. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth — as a commentator and writer — criticized Joint Chiefs Chairman CQ Brown, who is Black, for pursuing DEI policies, saying he should be fired. But this week when asked if Brown would remain, Hegseth said they would work together. So a question for Secretary Hegseth is: Who do you believe got a senior job because of diversity and would you fire them?
- Prioritizing military excellence and readiness: This order contends that service members with gender dysphoria and those with "shifting pronoun usage or use of pronouns that inaccurately reflect an individual's sex" are unfit to serve in the military.
Advocates say there are about 15,000 transgender troops among the 2.3 million service members. Fewer than 2,000 have been diagnosed with gender dysphoria or had surgeries. Nonetheless, the executive order speaks of transgender identity in sweeping and dismissive terms, and sets the stage for a policy that is more restrictive and punitive than the ban from Trump's first term.
- Reinstating Service Members Discharged Under The Military's COVID-19 Vaccination Mandate: This order permits the reinstatement of service members who were discharged for refusing to take the COVID-19 vaccine. Those service members would return to their former rank "and receive full back pay, benefits, bonus payments or compensation." It's unclear how many people would be affected by this order; the vast majority of the armed services followed the mandate orders during the pandemic.
The Defense Authorization Act from 2023 called for bringing back the thousands of soldiers who refused to take the COVID vaccine, and most were young soldiers in the ranks for a few years. About 80 or so came back into the Army.
— Selena Simmons-Duffin and Geoff Brumfiel contributed to this story.
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