10 things you need to know today: August 24, 2017

Trump prepares to launch ban on transgender soldiers, Trump calls for unity one day after his fiery Phoenix speech, and more

President Trump speaks to veterans in Reno, Nevada
(Image credit: NICHOLAS KAMM/AFP/Getty Images)

1. Memo to spell out Trump's plan for military transgender ban

The White House is preparing to send the Pentagon a memo with instructions on implementing President Trump's plan to ban transgender people from the military, a person familiar with the memo confirmed Wednesday. The policy will let Defense Secretary James Mattis consider a service member's ability to deploy when deciding whether to remove them from the military, The Wall Street Journal reports, and gives him six months to re-establish the ban on transgender soldiers that former President Barack Obama dropped a year ago. The memo also directs the Pentagon to cut off payments for gender reassignment surgery and other treatments for transgender military members already serving. Trump announced on Twitter last month he would reinstate the ban.

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Harold Maass, The Week US

Harold Maass is a contributing editor at The Week. He has been writing for The Week since the 2001 debut of the U.S. print edition and served as editor of TheWeek.com when it launched in 2008. Harold started his career as a newspaper reporter in South Florida and Haiti. He has previously worked for a variety of news outlets, including The Miami Herald, ABC News and Fox News, and for several years wrote a daily roundup of financial news for The Week and Yahoo Finance.