Sid Miller on Trump's transgender ban: "Military is not the place for leftist social experimentation"
![Sid Miller, who was elected agriculture commissioner in November 2014, is shown at Day 3 of the Texas Republican Convention in Fort Worth on June 7, 2014.](https://thumbnails.texastribune.org/agnK4r9IGGBBhC6KYHVYqIrln7s=/850x570/smart/filters:quality(75)/https://static.texastribune.org/media/images/2016/04/19/MillerSid13.jpg)
A tweet by President Donald Trump asserting that transgender people would no longer be able to serve in the U.S. military garnered the support of at least one Texas official: Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller.
“I am thrilled by President Trump’s decision. I just wonder why it took so damn long. The United States Military is not the place for leftist social experimentation,” Miller said in a statement to The Texas Tribune.
Trump tweeted early Wednesday that the U.S. government would no longer accept or allow transgender individuals to serve in the military “in any capacity.” He said his decision was due to the “tremendous medical costs and disruption that transgender [people] in the military would entail.”
Miller, who was passed over for the job of agriculture secretary in Trump’s cabinet, said he agreed with the president's decision, adding that it was “irresponsible and dangerous to force the armed forces to adapt its training, logistics, and most importantly, its war fighting to accommodate such a small group of people.”
Miller was among Trump's most avid Texas supporters in the home stretch of the 2016 election but has since suggested some distance with Trump on immigration. In June, Miller said he'd reconsider taking a role in the Trump administration if the president appealed to him directly.
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