SAN FRANCISCO, CA — Palm Center Director Aaron Belkin issued the following statement about today’s Buzzfeed report on a trove of e-mails confirming that President Trump did not consult military leaders before deciding to ban transgender troops:

“The e-mails reveal, yet again, how dishonest the Trump administration has been about the issue of transgender military service, beginning with Sarah Sanders’s claim last summer that the decision to exclude transgender troops ‘was a military decision.’ The administration’s dishonesty cannot conceal what we know from research and from military leaders’ testimony: open service has been a success for two years. 14,700 transgender Americans are serving smoothly and without problems for readiness. As the Senate weighs confirming a Supreme Court justice who is likely to rule on the legality of the president’s attempt to ban open service, the e-mails are a reminder that the Trump administration determines military personnel policy on the basis of politics, not evidence.”