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Ben Shapiro endorsed President Trump’s planned ban on transgender people serving in the military, branding them for what he called a “severe mental illness.”

“It was a bad policy because it made the entire army, entire military change its policies to basically fit the needs of a very small contingent people who unfortunately suffer from severe mental illness,” said the right-wing pundit on his Daily Wire podcast, criticizing former President Obama’s decision to let transgender people serve openly.

Referring to transgender people as “transgenders,” he added: “Suddenly you have women who are expected to shower with men who say they are women.” Being transgender is not considered a mental illness under current psychiatric standards.

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Shapiro qualified his praise for Trump by criticizing the president’s unveiling of the policy in a series of tweets. “How he rolled it out was really not appropriate,” he said, adding that it was disrespectful to transgender service members. He also speculated that it was intended to distract from Trump’s running fight with Attorney General Jeff Sessions, whom the president has derided in a series of tweets.

Contact Daniel J. Solomon at [email protected] or on Twitter @DanielJSolomon

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