This is the commander in chief of our military, folks, where transgender service members are currently deployed overseas with the units they serve in depending on them to perform critical tasks. Everyone has to believe that everyone else has their back and vice versa. And then there’s the Don, stewing in the safety of the Oval Office about a legislative snag that might tank billions in taxpayer funding for his precious border wall that everyone knows is a boondoggle anyway.

So the Don picks up his phone and fires off a policy-on-the-fly tweet storm claiming that “after consultation with my Generals and military experts,” transgender Americans wouldn’t be allowed to “serve in any capacity.” Except, the leaders of the respective branches were entirely blindsided …

x From @barbarastarrcnn: Joint Chiefs of Staff were not aware Trump planned to tweet a ban on service members who are transgender yesterday. — Kaitlan Collins (@kaitlancollins) July 27, 2017

Huh. It seemed so rock solid. Not so much, writes the New York Times ...

Mr. Mattis, who was on vacation, was silent on the new policy. People close to the defense secretary said he was appalled that Mr. Trump chose to unveil his decision in tweets, in part because of the message they sent to transgender active-duty service members, including those deployed overseas, that they were suddenly no longer welcome. [...] Mr. Mattis had worked behind the scenes to keep such language out of legislation, quietly lobbying Republican lawmakers not to attach the prohibitions, according to congressional and defense officials.

Hmm, wonder why Congressional Republicans were so worried about that whopping $8.4 million that might be spent on medical care for transgender people who are risking their lives for our country?