Trump’s Pentagon overhaul: 8 policy changes he’s expected to make

Expect the next commander in chief to quickly undo Biden-era policies.

Donald Trump’s opponents are foremost concerned that he will politicize the military and use it domestically against his political opponents. | Kenneth D Aston Jr./U.S. Navy

Joe Biden’s first days in the Oval Office were spent undoing a number of Donald Trump’s most divisive changes at the Pentagon. Now, President-elect Trump is ready to do the same.

The full extent of Trump’s plans for the Pentagon are not entirely clear after the former president defeated Vice President Kamala Harris. But he’s likely to begin the process of reversing some of the policies Republicans have been gunning for — and reinstating some of his own from four years ago.

Trump’s opponents are foremost concerned that he will politicize the military and use it domestically against his political opponents. Should he follow through on his rhetoric, that could spark a fight over reining in his authorities to deploy troops on U.S. shores.

Trump may quickly win applause from defense hawks and social conservatives by reinstating his administration’s more restrictive policies on transgender people serving the military and scrapping initiatives aimed at helping troops access abortion.

He’s expected to revive his proposal to change the paint scheme on the new Air Force One that is slated to be delivered during his term, as politico first reported. And Trump is likely to revisit a decision on which state will host the headquarters for the U.S. Space Command, which he and Biden differed on.

Here’s a rundown of the policies and issues Trump is most likely to change upon returning to the White House:

Troops on the homefront

Trump critics, and even some former officials who worked in his administration, are warning that the former president would wield the military for his own political gain after he called for the military to be used against “the enemy from within” the United States.

Indeed, Trump contemplated using the Insurrection Act to deploy active-duty troops against protesters late in his term. And if he continues his rhetoric, there will likely be attempts to reexamine the Insurrection Act and Posse Comitatus Act to rein in Trump’s authority to use the military domestically.

Top lawmakers, such as Senate Armed Services Chair Jack Reed (D-R.I.) and Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), have floated possible legislation. But efforts to limit Trump are unlikely to gain steam without Republican support.

Abortion travel policy

A Trump Pentagon is likely to roll back a Biden-era policy that allows troops to obtain leave and be reimbursed for the cost of traveling to seek abortions and other reproductive care. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin rolled out the policy in 2022 after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade’s national abortion protections. Biden administration officials reasoned that, with many women serving in states where abortions are now significantly limited or banned, facilitating access to abortion and other reproductive care helps maintain readiness.

But the policy sparked uproar among Republicans, who accused Biden of politicizing the military and skirting longstanding limits on federal funding for abortion — though the Justice Department advised the policy is legal.

Conservatives have pushed to block the policy in annual defense spending and policy bills, but haven’t succeeded amid Democratic opposition. With Trump headed back to the White House, GOP lawmakers will count on him to simply end the policy.

Transgender troops and diversity efforts

Within a week of taking office, Biden signed an executive order repealing Trump’s ban on transgender people serving openly in the military. Trump will likely restore the ban.

Transgender personnel began serving openly in the military in 2016 under an order from the Obama administration. But Trump announced in 2017 that he would reimpose the ban, angering LGBTQ advocates and Democrats.

“The United States Government will not accept or allow Transgender individuals to serve in any capacity in the U.S. Military,” Trump said in a post. “Our military must be focused on decisive and overwhelming victory and cannot be burdened with the tremendous medical costs and disruption that transgender in the military would entail.”

Trump’s ban prohibited transgender service members from serving in their identified gender and ordered the discharge of anyone diagnosed with gender dysphoria — severe anxiety some transgender people feel when their bodies don’t align with their gender — while in uniform. The move set off a flurry of lawsuits against the administration and any repeat is expected to do the same.

Conservatives in the House are fond of blasting diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives at the Pentagon as distracting from its core mission — and under a Trump presidency, they’re likely to be curbed or ended entirely.

In 2020, Trump signed an executive order extending a ban on race- and sex-based discrimination training to the military, federal contractors, and grant recipients. This expanded an White House Office of Management and Budget memo directing federal agencies to cancel programs on topics such as “white privilege” and “critical race theory,” which attributes racial inequality to systemic power structures.Trump agreed when asked at a rally in October whether he would create a task force to monitor what an audience member called “woke generals.”

Confederate base names

Trump also recently cracked the door to reversing efforts to remove the names of Confederate leaders from military bases, which was pushed through over his objections in the final days of his first term.

On a campaign stop in North Carolina in October, Trump said he would restore Fort Liberty’s original name, Fort Bragg, sparking a backlash from lawmakers in both parties who say they would fight back if he followed through as president. Trump said that renaming the base, which previously honored Confederate Gen. Braxton Bragg was “rewriting history” and he pledged to reverse it.

Nine Army bases that previously honored Confederate leaders were renamed under a process established by Congress, which they passed in 2021 over Trump’s veto. It’s unclear if Trump would try to expand his push to the other renamed installations.Though he’d face opposition from lawmakers if he follows through, Trump could still make good on the pledge. That’s because the executive branch, through the Defense Department and the military services, controls the naming of bases.

Troops in Europe

Trump may also look to move U.S. troops around Europe, or pull them entirely. Trump pushed to move 12,000 troops out of Germany in 2020, repositioning roughly half of them around the continent and bringing the other half back to the U.S. But that proposal was rebuffed by Congress.

Still, Trump hasn’t let up in his complaints that certain NATO allies don’t spend enough on their own defense, and could use U.S. troops as leverage to extract more concessions.

But there’s also bipartisan support for ratcheting up U.S. presence in Eastern Europe, where American troops can better train with countries that are concerned about Russian aggression. Many of those countries spend larger percentages of their GDP on defense, which could be an attractive option for Trump.

Space Command headquarters

Trump is expected to send U.S. Space Command to Alabama, which is where he wanted it before President Joe Biden reversed course and decided to keep it in Colorado.

The command, which is responsible for managing military space assets and satellite defense, was re-established in 2019, prompting the search for a permanent location. Near the end of Trump’s term, the Pentagon announced it would move to Alabama’s Redstone Arsenal, a decision Trump later claimed he personally influenced.

The yearslong dispute has drawn in members of Colorado and Alabama congressional delegations from both parties, with the states accusing the other and both administrations of playing politics by rewarding a state that voted for them in 2020.

Alabama lawmakers have been counting on a Trump win to realize his original decision to move Space Command from its temporary headquarters in Colorado Springs to Huntsville.

“Trump’s gonna be there. He’s going to enforce what the secretary of the Air Force said under his administration and the secretary of the Air Force said under Biden’s administration,” House Armed Services Chair Mike Rogers (R-Ala.) predicted last year. “That is, Huntsville won the competition … and that’s where it should be and that’s where he’s going to build it.”

It’s been a grinding fight for both states, so expect the Coloradans to raise hell.

“The cement is hardening on Space Command in Colorado, that’s all I can say,” Rep. Jason Crow (D-Colo.) said in an interview. “It is at full operational capability and moving it would be pretty disastrous for our national security mission, so we’ve been moving forward.”

Space National Guard

Trump in August separately pledged to create a Space National Guard, a proposal favored by Guard leaders and officials from a handful of states to provide part-time personnel to the Space Force. It’s a move the Biden administration opposes as needlessly expensive and bureaucratic.

Congress would need to approve the reorganization, which would shift units that perform space missions that are now part of the Air National Guard. Biden’s Pentagon has proposed simply transferring space units from the Air Guard to the Space Force without creating a new branch of the National Guard, a move officials argue is the cheapest and least bureaucratic way to align space personnel.

Lawmakers, however, are split on how to proceed. The House has previously endorsed creating a Space National Guard while the Senate has sided with the Biden administration. Trump could shift the debate in favor of a new Space Guard, in the same way his support for a Space Force helped create the newest branch of the military during his first term.

Air Force One colors

Trump will also get another crack at changing the color scheme of the next Air Force One, a proposal that Biden reversed but that the former president would likely redo if he returns to the White House.

Trump pushed to change the colors of the Boeing-made planes to his preferred red, white and dark blue, similar to the pattern on his private plane.

After POLITICO first reported in 2022 that Trump’s preferred design would contribute to excessive temperatures and require expensive modifications to cool components, Biden scrapped the plans, reverting to the traditional light blue and white design

This year, a former senior Trump White House official predicted the former president would “absolutely” change it back.

There’s still time for Trump to order a change in the paint scheme to the two Boeing 747-8s that the Air Force is set to receive in 2026 and 2027, but doing so could incur even more costs and delays to a program that is already over budget and past schedule.

Due to the fixed-price contract, Boeing would eat the extra cost. The firm signed a $3.9 billion contract in 2018 for two new presidential aircraft as Trump personally got involved to push down the price. The program is already more than $2 billion over budget.