President Donald Trump will sign a directive mandating the continued operation of the United States' military prison in Guantanamo Bay.

Trump has allowed the prison with a dwindling population of accused terrorists to remain open his first year in office after promising to 'load it up with some bad dudes' when he was a presidential candidate.

He will announce next week that he is formally reversing an Obama-era order authorizing the closure of the detention center, Politico reported.

President Donald Trump will sign a directive mandating the continued operation of the United States' military prison in Guantanamo Bay

Trump has allowed the prison with a dwindling population of accused terrorists to remain open his first year in office after promising to 'load it up with some bad dudes' when he was a presidential candidate

Trump, seen here in Davos, Switzerland, is likely to announce the Gitmo policy in his State of the Union Address on Tuesday evening or sometime before then

The announcement will likely come during Trump's State of the Union Address on Tuesday evening, the news publication said, although it could come a few days earlier or later.

Barack Obama memorably campaigned on the closure of the facility but never was able achieve it. Congress repeatedly rebuffed his efforts to have the foreign combatants transferred to prisons on U.S. soil.

Obama looked to other countries to take the prisoners off the United States' hands, instead, eventually transferring custody of most of the 242 inmates imprisoned at Gitmo, as it's also called, when he took office.

He moved aggressively to fulfill a 2009 executive order dictating the prison be 'closed as soon as practicable' his final year in office, however 41 combatants were still behind bars when he left.

Trump has not added to the prison population since taking office, although he said last year that he would consider sending an Uzbek national who mowed down cyclists and pedestrians in New York there.

'I would certainly consider that, yes. I would certainly consider that. Send him to Gitmo,' Trump told a reporter in November.

The White House backed off the response later that same day, saying Trump 'would support that, but he wasn't necessarily advocating for it.'

His executive order will ask the Pentagon to 'recommend criteria to the President for determining detention disposition outcomes for individuals captured on the battlefield,' Politico reported.

'Currently, the United States employs a number of different options for disposition, including transferring individuals to host governments or pursuing prosecution in a U.S. court. These remain viable options,' a document obtained by the news organization says.

Obama argued for nearly a decade that the prison was a recruitment tool for terrorists and it needed to be closed with haste.

A speech delivered his last year as president characterized the prison as 'contrary to our values' and a 'stain on our broader record' of defending and upholding the rule of law.

Trump, then a Republican candidate for president, told his supporters the following day, 'We're going to load it up with some bad dudes.'

With his inauguration just around the bend, Trump reaffirmed his belief that Guantanamo Bay should remain open.

'There should be no further releases from Gitmo,' he said in Jan. 3. tweet. 'These are extremely dangerous people and should not be allowed back onto the battlefield.'

Obama made one last dispatch of 18 prisoners, however, before the handover.

A draft diplomatic cable obtained by Politico revealed Trump's plans to officially reverse Obama's order that military seek to wind the prison down.

It also said, 'At this time, we are not aware of any plans to bring additional detainees to Guantanamo Bay.'

The cable is said to ask some American diplomats to inform their counterparts of the executive order but ask that foreign governments keep it to themselves until after the president's speech to a joint session of Congress.

'The E.O. does not signal a significant policy shift with respect to detentions' the cable reportedly says. 'Rather, it affirms Guantanamo Bay will continue to remain open and serve as one of several options the United States maintains for the detention of terrorists.'