Donald Trump is 'literally a war-dodger, who comes from a life of privilege', says US' first out transgender soldier

The first openly transgender soldier in the US military has attacked Donald Trump for pulling back on transgender rights in the military, noting that the President took a lot of care to not go to war in his youth.

Mr Trump tweeted that he was going to stop the military from allowing openly transgender individuals from enrolling in the US armed services.

“To be quite frank, my first thought was, ‘f***,’” Shane Ortega, a retired Army sergeant, told Mic. “Trump is a man who is literally a war-dodger, who comes from a life of privilege and silver spoon, who has no connexion to reality whatsoever, and I don’t know how much more the American public needs to see that.”

Mr Trump announced, via tweet, that he was planning on eliminating the transgender military inclusion rules, saying that he had consulted with military officials in the process. The move, he said, was in order to curb the medical costs associated with transgender healthcare coverage.

“Our military must be focused on decisive and overwhelming victory and cannot be burdened with the tremendous medical costs and disruption that transgender in the military would entail,” he wrote.

Critics of that policy directive say that there is little reason to be concerned that transgender individuals are any less capable than cisgender soldiers.

Mr Ortega fought for the rights of transgender soldiers for eight years, a period of time that included co-founding a chapter of a nonprofit that works to help transgender military personnel in active service.

“What more will it take for people in this country to become really outraged?” he asked.

Mr Trump received five deferments from the military draft during the Vietnam War. That included four deferments for educational purposes, and one for having a bad foot.

The President, before his time in politics, openly joked about avoiding the draft as well. During a 1997 appearance on Howard Stern, Mr Trump joked that sexually transmitted diseases were his “personal Vietnam” and said he felt “like a great and very brave soldier” for avoiding STDs while living as a bachelor.