Trump administration tells federal judge to ignore Pete Hegseth’s anti-trans posts

The Trump administration wants a federal judge to disregard social media statements by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and the Pentagon when determining whether its transgender military ban is constitutional. At the same time, President Donald Trump’s media company sells faster access to his social media posts for as much as $100,000 a month.The argument appears in a four-page Justice Department filing submitted Tuesday in Talbott v. United States, the federal lawsuit challenging the administration’s efforts to remove transgender people from military service.Government attorneys notified U.S. District Judge for the District of Columbia Ana Reyes that they intend to seek summary judgment on all five claims, arguing the court should rule for the administration without a trial. They also challenged Reyes’ previous consideration of statements made by government officials outside the written policy.Related: ‘High T’ Pete Hegseth hurls anti-trans slur at Iowa State Fair campaign stop while Iran war rages on “The Supreme Court has held that courts should not look outside the operative terms of a policy—as this Court did with respect to certain social media posts—in assessing the basis on which a policy classifies,” the Justice Department wrote.The government cited the Supreme Court’s June 30 decision in West Virginia v. B.P.J., involving transgender participation in school sports, to support its position.But the social media statements at issue were not casual political commentary. They came from officials responsible for implementing the policy, and Hegseth repeatedly described the administration’s effort as an exclusion of transgender people, rather than a restriction based solely on medical conditions.On February 27, 2025, the Pentagon’s official X account announced, “Transgender service members are disqualified from service without an exemption.” Hegseth reposted the statement through his official account.In her March ruling temporarily block