The beleaguered Donald Trump, who currently sits in the epicenter of a constantly growing investigation into Russian collusion and at the head of a very public and very unpopular attempt to strip health care away from millions of Americans, is definitely trying to distract us. During the campaign, Trump would do and say outrageous and hateful and offensive things that would dominate the news coverage while distracting from real issues. And I get why that was so frustrating for people. But this is different. Trump isn't a candidate anymore, he's the president, and these distractions have real consequences for real Americans. Today's attempt at changing the narrative is no exception.

This morning, in what is just the latest attack on the transgender community, Donald Trump made the hateful and shameful decision to ban trans Americans from serving in the military. Why?

First there's the bullshit "distraction" argument, which is what bigots have used to excuse everything from segregation in the '50s to employment discrimination against women to banning gays from the military. This is not a good reason to stop anyone from doing anything. "Distractions" like these are good. They're society moving forward and becoming more welcoming and kinder.

But let's focus on the other claim Trump makes. The idea that the military "cannot be burdened with the tremendous medical costs." When Barack Obama reversed the ban on trans service members, the Pentagon released a report saying that the change, including medical considerations, would cost between $2.4 and $8.4 million a year. Now, let's forget for a moment that this is a drop in the bucket of a military budget that amounts to somewhere in the neighborhood of $500 billion (with a "b") a year, and is by no means a "tremendous" cost. On the high end of that estimate, allowing trans men and women to serve in the military would cost about the same as four of Trump's weekend trips to Mar a Lago. Four! And that's the high end of the projection and using a very conservative estimate from the Washington Post ($2 million) of how much a Trump Mar a Lago trip costs taxpayers.

And a Trump administration official defended the decision by saying, "This forces Democrats in Rust Belt states like Ohio, Michigan, and Wisconsin, to take complete ownership of this issue. How will the blue collar voters in these states respond when senators up for re-election in 2018 like Debbie Stabenow are forced to make their opposition to this a key plank of their campaigns?" (Note: A good response from Democrats might be to point to people like Kristin Beck who is a transgender woman and served on SEAL Team 6.)

So not only is Trump lying about the cost, his administration is openly doing this to appeal to bigots. This isn't even a dog whistle. This is just a cynical, disgusting decision designed to get people to stop paying attention to Russia and health care long enough that he can fire Jeff Sessions so he can replace him with someone who will fire Mueller and give people something else to call their representatives about so they can take away health care from millions while we're looking somewhere else.

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