President Donald Trump’s sudden announcement Wednesday morning that transgender people would be barred from serving in the US military may have been part of a last-ditch effort to save a House bill that partly funds a border wall, according to aPolitico report.

House Republicans were reportedly at loggerheads all week over a spending bill and couldn’t agree on whether to insist on a ban on Pentagon-funded gender reassignment surgeries.

The standoff threatened to tank the entire bill, which included funding for the border wall for which Trump campaigned and has been pressing, Politico reported.

While moderate Republicans believed that a ban on funding such operations would discriminate against transgender service members, some hardline conservatives had vehemently opposed the funding, arguing that it wastes taxpayer money.

Read the whole story from Business Insider.

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