Why does President Trump want a transgender troop ban? (Nathaniel Frank, Alexander Downes)

When President Donald Trump tweeted that "the United States Government will not accept or allow transgender individuals to serve in any capacity in the U.S. military," he called into question the fate of the estimated 12,800 troops currently in active service that would be affected. But are the President's stated reasons for the pledged shift in policy, the “tremendous medical costs and disruption,” supported by the facts? In this episode of TrumpWatch, host Jesse Lent examines whether sexual orientation actually has a quantifiable effect on the cohesion of our fighting force with Nathaniel Frank, director of Columbia Law School's What We Know Project, a research initiative that collects scholarship on LGBTQ public policy and the author of “Unfriendly Fire: How the Gay Ban Undermines the Military and Weakens America” and Alexander Downes, an associate professor of political science and international affairs at George Washington University, where he teaches courses on international security and military effectiveness. His article “Would transgender troops harm military effectiveness? Here’s what the research says” was published on August 1 in the Washington Post.