The Trump administration’s ban on transgender troops has harmed the military’s ability to protect the nation, according to former military surgeons general. Three top former military health leaders were co-authors of a study published Sunday by the Palm Center, which found that President Trump’s decision of banning trans military personnel had a negative effect on military readiness. The ban, which forces individuals to serve in their birth gender and bars transgender personnel from transitioning to their self-identified gender, was implemented by the Department of Defense on April 12, 2019. It came after a surprising decision by Trump, who announced via a series of tweets in 2017 that he wanted to reverse an Obama-era decision that ended a longstanding military ban on transgender troops. The DoD, when implemented the policy last year, argued that the ban was necessary because of financial costs associated with transgender troops, and because having trans personnel posed a threat to the force’s readiness, cohesion, and lethality.