In his first executive order, President Donald Trump again stripped protections for transgender troops that Democratic President Joe Biden had restored after Trump banned those members from serving during his first term in office. The ban previously faced legal challenges, and lawyers who represented transgender forces last time are readying to take it up in the courts again. While Trump has not announced a ban, his decision to revoke protections is seen as a first step toward that. It is unclear how many troops would be affected. The Defense Department has no exact figure on the number of transgender troops serving because not every transgender person is in the same state of medical transition and not every transgender person identifies as such in military paperwork. The department has referred queries on how many transgender troops there are to the services; the services have said they have no way to track. MORE: https://www.wthr.com/article/news/nation-world/pete-hegseth-pentagon-issues/507-19769f30-606b-4727-b20b-1d1cba4c7fed