SAN FRANCISCO, CA – Palm Center director Aaron Belkin released the following statement on the nomination of Patrick Shanahan to serve as Secretary of Defense:

“Patrick Shanahan, President Trump’s nominee to serve as Secretary of Defense, was the lead civilian official in charge of the Pentagon’s after-the-fact justification for the president’s tweeted transgender ban. Shanahan’s group published a report that was based on falsehoods, was repudiated by retired chiefs of military medicine, and that withheld key Pentagon data that contradicted the ban’s rationale. It is not a positive sign for national security when the Defense Secretary fails to tell the truth.”