Apolitical late night host Jimmy Fallon invited a transgender comedian on his show after President Trump made the surprise announcement Wednesday that openly transgender individuals would no longer be allowed to serve in “any capacity” in the U.S. military.
“Our military must be focused on decisive and overwhelming victory and cannot be burdened with the tremendous medical costs and disruption that transgender in the military would entail,” President Trump tweeted on Wednesday morning, adding: “Thank you.”
Fallon, who generally doesn’t hit hard with political punches, didn’t express his own opinion about the ban on Wednesday night, but still took the opportunity to jab the president.
“President Trump says that he’s banning transgender people from serving because of high medical costs,” Fallon quipped. “If he cares so much about high medical costs, maybe he should pass a healthcare bill.”
Fallon then invited transgender comedian Patti Harrison to respond to the ban — and she didn’t hold back.
“Trump says transgender people in the military would be a tremendous disruption,” she added. “And I get it. If you constantly draw attention to yourself, spend all day distracting everyone and cost taxpayers millions of dollars, the perfect job for you isn’t the military, it’s the president of the United States.”
A 2016 Defense Department-commissioned study examines potential medical cost estimates for transgender people serving in the military. Here is what it found: “The implication is that even in the most extreme scenario that we were able to identify … we expect only a 0.13-percent ($8.4 million out of $6.2 billion) increase in health care spending,” Rand’s authors concluded.
By contrast, the Washington Post pointed out, the military spends approximately $84 million annually on erectile dysfunction medicines. According to a Military Times analysis, that’s 10 times the cost of yearly transition-related medical care for active duty transgender servicemembers.
Take a look at the clip above.
This article was featured in the InsideHook newsletter. Sign up now.
