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Article snippet: WASHINGTON — When President Trump chose Twitter last week to announce that he planned to ban transgender service members from the military, he said his decision would safeguard the readiness of the armed forces and was made on the advice of his generals. Now, a week after Mr. Trump’s Twitter statements, military policy experts say that years of study have not produced much evidence to support Mr. Trump’s claims that transgender service members make it harder for the American military to focus on “decisive and overwhelming victory,” as the president wrote. A group of 56 retired generals and admirals put out a statement this week saying that ejecting transgender service members would itself degrade military readiness. In true Washington form, the 56 were answering a letter from another group of 16 retired generals that said Mr. Trump’s proposed ban was necessary “to save the culture and war-fighting capacity of the U.S. military.” The White House has still not put forward a serving general or military adviser to publicly back Mr. Trump’s assertion. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis has been quiet on the topic, and Gen. Joseph F. Dunford Jr., the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the military was not kicking out any service members until the White House sent specific guidelines. The commandant of the Coast Guard, Adm. Paul F. Zukunft, said on Tuesday that he would continue to support transgender troops under his command. The military readiness argument is a fam... Link to the full article to read more