Senator who lost both legs in Iraq war blasts Trump on transgender military ban

She said it didn't matter what race, sexual orientation, or gender identity the soldiers who saved her were

Duckworth has criticised Mr Trump for his transgender ban (Getty Images)

Iraq war veteran and Senator Tammy Duckworth has taken Donald Trump to task over his ban on transgender people serving in the United States military.

Ms Duckworth, who lost both of her legs serving in the military, said that, at the moment in her military career where it mattered the most, she really didn’t care the gender identity of the people fighting to keep her alive.

“When I was bleeding to death in my Black Hawk helicopter after I was shot down, I didn’t care if the American troops risking their lives to help save me were gay, straight, transgender, black, white, or brown,” Ms Duckworth said. “All that mattered was they didn’t leave me behind. If you are willing to risk your life for our country, and you can do the job, you should be able to serve — no matter your gender identity or sexual orientation.”

Mr Trump announced his plan to reverse policies favoured by his predecessor, Barack Obama, in a tweet last month. The tweet — notable because it was a declaration of consequential national policy declared for the first time on social media — sparked widespread outrage, and appeared to catch the Pentagon, who at the time referred questions about the policy to the White House, off guard.

High ranking military officials later indicated that a ban on transgender people wouldn’t be enforced until they had received official directives from the White House on the matter. Mr Trump’s West Wing sent over that paperwork this week.

“Anything else is not just discriminatory, it is disruptive to our military, and it is counterproductive to our national security,” Ms Duckworth continued. “If the President enacts this ban, which would harm our military readiness, the Democratic and Republican Members of Congress who oppose this discrimination must enact legislation that prevents it from taking effect.”

Mr Trump has been criticised before for actively avoiding military service in his youth, and his apparent disgust for transgender people who want to enlist on their own volition. The President received four draft deferments for college, and one for bad feet. Later in life, after becoming a celebrity, he once joked that his sex life was his own form of the Viet Nam war, and that avoiding sexually transmitted diseases was the enemy then.