As soon as President Trump took to Twitter on Wednesday to announce a ban on transgender service members in the U.S. military, celebrities and late night hosts responded in outrage. This is your Throwdown Thursday.
Today’s face-off is between the president of the United States and, well, basically anybody with a late-night talk show (not to mention thousands of members of the military and plenty of others).
After the president took to Twitter Wednesday morning to announce a complete ban on transgender people in the military the backlash on social media and in the world of entertainment was swift. Celebrities from Ellen DeGeneres to Kim Kardashian spoke out against the move on Twitter, and even Caitlyn Jenner, who’s been a vocal Trump supporter in the past, tweeted out a message of disgust, asking Trump what happened to his promise to fight for the 15,000 transgender American service members (that last reaction got its own reaction as people weren’t thrilled about Jenner’s choice to only speak out against Trump now).
After consultation with my Generals and military experts, please be advised that the United States Government will not accept or allow......
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 26, 2017
....Transgender individuals to serve in any capacity in the U.S. Military. Our military must be focused on decisive and overwhelming.....
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 26, 2017
....victory and cannot be burdened with the tremendous medical costs and disruption that transgender in the military would entail. Thank you
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 26, 2017
Fixed it for you, @realDonaldTrump. pic.twitter.com/taObp6nR68
— Stephen Colbert (@StephenAtHome) July 27, 2017
There are 15,000 patriotic transgender Americans in the US military fighting for all of us. What happened to your promise to fight for them? https://t.co/WzjypVC8Sr
— Caitlyn Jenner (@Caitlyn_Jenner) July 26, 2017
We should be grateful to the people who wish to serve, not turn our backs on them. Banning transgender people is hurtful, baseless and wrong
— Ellen DeGeneres (@EllenDeGeneres) July 26, 2017
And then there were the late night shows. Jimmy Fallon invited transgender comedian Patti Harrison onto the Tonight Show to respond; Samantha Bee compared the cost of transgender-related expenses in the military to the cost of Trump visiting his Trump brand properties (that’s about $8 million versus $60 million); Stephen Colbert got straight to the point dropping an eff-bomb directed at the commander in chief; and Seth Meyers invited four of his female writers to weigh in with jokes and sight gags.
We’re thinking this controversy won’t be dying down anytime soon.
Next: Twitter round up: Celebrities respond to the transgender ban
Check back for more pop culture controversy on next week’s episode of Throwdown Thursday.