During his time in office, former President Donald Trump banned transgender members of the military.
While President Joe Biden's administration reversed the ban rather quickly, at least one Republican 2024 presidential candidate is vowing to bring the ban back into play.
According to The Daily Wire, former vice president Mike Pence, a 2024 Republican candidate, said during his quick speech at the Republican Party’s Lincoln Dinner in Des Moines, Iowa, that he would reinstate the ban.
Pence tweeted a link to the story regarding his vow to bring back the ban.
“I believe all this politically correct nonsense that’s going on at the Pentagon is affecting recruitment in the United States military. We’ve got to get our military back to focusing on being the best trained and the best prepared military in the world." https://t.co/ZeMa9AAi7h
— Mike Pence (@Mike_Pence) July 30, 2023
The Lincoln Day Dinner fundraising event is known as the first "cattle call" event for Republican candidates, with each of them receiving 10 minutes of talking time to make their first big sales pitch to the early voting state of Iowa.
Winning favor in Iowa as early as possible has historically been a sharp advantage for GOP presidential candidates.
Many on social media celebrated Pence's vow to revamp the U.S. military, moving away from focusing on "woke" ideology to getting back into fighting shape for future conflicts.
WATCH: Mike Pence joins suit with other Republican leaders in calling for the reinstatement of a ban on transgender personnel in the United States military.
WE NEED TO MAKE THIS HAPPEN!! pic.twitter.com/Z1Zyu0Vl96
— Proud Elephant 🇺🇸🦅 (@ProudElephantUS) July 29, 2023
"We can embrace our role as leader of the free world to confront Russian aggression and Chinese provocations with a new military fitted to the challenges in the 21st century," Pence said at the event.
The former vice president added, "And we can end the political correctness at the Pentagon, including reinstituting a ban on transgender personnel in the United States military."
Aside from Trump's obvious view on the issue, given he was behind the original ban, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R), seen as Trump's stiffest competition at the moment, has pledged to reinstate the Trump-era policy.
It's expected that most other mainstream Republican candidates will also pledge the same, especially given that the topic is politically white-hot right now.
Pence and most other Republican candidates are trailing far behind both DeSantis and Trump in most polls. Only time will tell if Pence can convince enough Trump supporters to join his cause, as he'll desperately need them for the numbers. So far, it's not looking good for the former vice president.
