President Donald Trump’s tweet regarding a ban on transgender individuals serving in the armed forces drew a strong reaction around the country this week, including from military leaders.

Trump tweeted about his intention to ban transgender individuals from serving in the U.S. military July 26:

“After consultation with my Generals and military experts, please be advised that the United States Government will not accept or allow transgender individuals to serve in any capacity in the U.S. Military,” according to the tweets from President Trump. “Our military must be focused on decisive and overwhelming victory and cannot be burdened with the tremendous medical costs and disruption that transgenders in the military would entail. Thank you.”

While Trump’s tweets are considered official statements from the president, official instructions have not been sent from the White House to the Pentagon regarding moving forward with the transgender policy, according to military officials.

Related: Santa Clarita School Officials, Parents Sound Off On New Transgender Law

Congressman Steve Knight, R-Santa Clarita, issued a statement Tuesday to KHTS News that essentially said if someone is physically able and willing to serve the nation, then they should be allowed to, although he did feel decisions on military policy should be left to military officials.

“It is my personal belief that if an American citizen can meet the physical, mental, and emotional requirements established by the Department of Defense to serve in the armed forces, they should be allowed to do so,” said Knight. “I also place a great deal of trust in Secretary of Defense Mattis, a retired 4 star Marine Corps General, to determine the policies that best serve the readiness of our troops and the nation.”

Military officials issued statements in response noting there has been no official order to change the current military policy.

“No modifications to the current policy until the President’s direction has been received by the Secretary of Defense and the Secretary has issued implementation guidelines,” said U.S. Navy Captain, Jeff Davis, a spokesperson for the Pentagon. “We are now in the process of waiting for that to be formally articulated to us in a policy memo and we’ll be standing by to make that happen, until then (we) don’t have anything on it.”

As the Department of Defense and Pentagon await some type of follow-up from the president’s announcement, officials and former servicemen have made their positions clear on the issue.

The Joint Chiefs were unaware of the president’s decision, according to a CNN report, and the Twitter post was directly contradictory to Secretary of Defense, General James Mattis’ desire to study the issue further before making any decisions.

California’s top legal official expressed concern about the policy.

Attorney General Xavier Becerra sent a letter, co-signed by 18 other attorneys general, to Congress “urging them to add language to the federal National Defense Authorization Act that would explicitly prohibit discrimination against transgender persons who currently serve in or wish to join the U.S. military,” according to a California Department of Justice news release.

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