White House issues rules on military's transgender ban

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A U.S. Army CH-47 Chinook helicopter over Afghanistan (U.S. Army)

As President Donald Trump returned to Washington, D.C., from a trip out west, the White House dropped a major policy announcement on the military and transgender enlistees.

The Wall Street Journal reported that the commander-in-chief is officially ordering the Pentagon to stop enlisting transgender people in the military. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis will also have the power to consider a service member's ability to deploy.

The White House is expected to issue a memo that gives the Pentagon six months to adjust to these new rules.

The approach, first spelled out in a series of tweets from Trump weeks ago, came the same day the president made a unity-themed speech in Nevada. That had a much different tone from a campaign rally speech less than 24 hours earlier in Arizona, where Trump blamed the media for fallout to his response to violence in Charlottesville.

But his stance on the border wall funding shocked some within the president's own party. Trump threatened to shut down the government if Congress doesn't fund the wall.

But House Speaker Paul Ryan dismissed that idea. He said no one wants to see a government shutdown and that it isn't necessary.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell addressed a New York Times report that he and the president are so angry with each other that they haven't spoken in weeks. McConnell is now insisting the that he and Trump share an agenda focused on tax reform and infrastructure. He and the president are set to meet in September once legislators return from summer break.