It’s week two of round two and we’re off to a rocky start. Lest President Trump’s faithful grow restless at the early slew of executive orders that did nothing to increase prosperity for the economically anxious, fear not: our invasion of Greenland is just around the corner, and nothing boosts federal spending like a shooting war.
Thankfully, as they limber up for our potential conflict against a NATO ally, our military will now be safe from the bane of transgender soldiers honorably performing the jobs they were trained to do. Trump signed an executive order this week banning them from serving.
Why?
Nobody’s arguing these people are bad at their jobs. There’s no evidence that transgender soldiers decrease unit efficiency or moral, except, perhaps, among those who find themselves uncomfortable serving with such personnel. But that seems like more of a they/them problem—oh no, we’re using pronouns. So, again, why? I would like to offer a possible answer:
Because he said so.
It’s the answer my mother would give me when I was a child to defend a logically dubious demand. It’s the answer one gives when one believes their authority is all the explanation needed for the actions they take. In the case of the Commander-in-Chief, his word does suffice to alter policy; the problem is, “because I said so” doesn’t confer a whole lot of trust in the person receiving such an edict.
In fact, it does the opposite, creating a condition of distrust. The reason we grant our political leadership authority over us is because we believe they are well-equipped to make important decisions on our behalf. When they offer no cogent rationale for those decisions, it undercuts the legitimacy of their rule.
“Because I said so” are the words of somebody whose premise relies on the status quo. But Trump specifically ran as the anti status quo candidate. He’s the guy that’s going to shake things up! To “Make America Great Again!” The thing is, though, sloganeering is not governing. When you don’t define “greatness” or explain in a coherent manner why the stack of Sharpie-signed declarations move us closer to that “greatness,” we citizenry have no way to measure whether you’re doing your job well or not.
Sure, diehard Trumpers might not care about any of this as long as the libs get “owned” here and there, but some 2/3 of the country didn’t vote for our new president, and millions upon millions of us are keeping score.
![A protestor in a satirical Donald Trump costume poses with a Trump supporter in Washington, D.C., on January 20, 2025.](https://www.thedailybeast.com/resizer/v2/2MSIU4CDJRHHPGX6IT7TFBKJCI.jpg?auth=69fb8499aaf1b28b481b098c5e3eda5a7db2d55ca9f4f38f1baed4b87e8a3cf9&width=800&height=533)
I’m on holiday in France at the moment and happened to spy the 1972 book Communism, Fascism, and Democracy, edited by the late political philosopher Carl Cohen, on the bookshelves of my Airbnb. I flipped to the fascism section for no reason—no reason at all!—and was immediately struck by Cohen’s introductory description, which addresses the three philosophical pillars on which fascism rests:
- Absolutism (“I alone can fix it”).
- Organicism, which Cohen defines as equating the nation with an organic entity (“They’re poisoning the blood of our nation”).
- Irrationalism (“Windmills cause cancer”).
In banning transgender troops, Trump draws from each pillar. As an absolutist, Trump’s orders are meant to undercut the previous administration—and to send a signal to his white Christian nationalist base. Same with his blatantly unconstitutional birthright citizenship plans. It’s the creepy “Daddy’s home” argument we’ve seen MAGA making since the election.
As an organicist, he’s treating the military as a body sickened by the presence of a foreign entity. His executive order’s language reads, “for the sake of our Nation and the patriotic Americans who volunteer to serve it, military service must be reserved for those mentally and physically fit for duty.” The implication being that transgender soldiers are neither—again, despite there being no evidence to the contrary.
And as an irrationalist, he justifies this nonsensical order by declaring, “a man’s assertion that he is a woman, and his requirement that others honor this falsehood, is not consistent with the humility and selflessness required of a service member.”
(There’s nothing about a biological woman’s assertion of maleness, although I guess we can presume the order also applies to transgender men.)
Why a trans person innately lacks humility or selflessness goes unsaid. Perhaps that’s because one thing has nothing to do with the others. But the irrationalist need not tie the nonsensical into a bow; his only need is to pull at strings until they break. Then he can tie them back together and claim victory.
His audience does not crave sense. They only crave surety.
And, by God, surety is what they’ve got! The MAGA movement is rooted in the rightness of their convictions, until those convictions are replaced by other, newer convictions—defending the police until the police are attacked by their supporters, at which time defending the police no longer matters. Or banning TikTok as a national security matter, until the livelihoods of the app’s creators becomes a top priority. See how it works?
Two LBGTQ organizations have filed a federal lawsuit challenging Trump’s order, but nobody else is saying much. Again and again, we’re seeing the Democratic party keep their mouths shut when it counts the most.
Yes, the service of transgender military personnel is not a pressing concern for most Americans. The “problem” didn’t rank among any of the top 20 issues in a September 2024 Gallup poll asking voters for their top concerns; in fact, “transgender rights” as a whole ranked 24th—of 24.
Invading Greenland didn’t even make the list, by the way.
But just because something doesn’t matter to the American people doesn’t mean it isn’t a top priority for a president who otherwise promised to end the war in Ukraine before assuming office (he didn’t), bring down the price of groceries on day one (he didn’t) and repeal the Affordable Care Act (he hasn’t, nor has he even mentioned it).
Instead, his first week in office was mostly spent tilting at windmills. Unlike Don Quixote, however, who only had the loyal Sancho Panza to do his bidding, Trump has at his disposal the entirety of the federal government’s Executive Branch, including his new Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, whose infidelity, misogyny, alleged sexual misconduct (which Hegseth has denied), financial mismanagement and white supremacist views (which he has also denied) are certainly not consistent with the humility and selflessness required of a service member.
So why is Hegseth allowed to assume the nation’s second-highest position of military authority while hundreds, or thousands, of others who have committed none of Hegseth’s offenses are being drummed out?
Because he said so.