Hours following the announcement, hundreds of angry protesters took to the streets of New York, Washington DC, and San Francisco to show their displeasure. Crowds gathered at a plaza named after the late San Francisco gay rights activist Harvey Milk to protest Trump's ban. They also gathered at the Los Angeles LGBT Center in Hollywood, and also at the famed US Army Recruitment center in Times Square.
Demonstrators across the country held up signs bearing slogans. Words written on them include; "resist", "rise up", "Trans lives are not a burden". They can be heard chanting: "Stand up! Fight back!" as they took to the streets.
Doug Thorogood and Nick Rondoletto, a gay couple from San Francisco, waved a rainbow flag and held a sign that read: "The only reason transgenders are being banned from the military is for bigotry."
"Haven't transgender people gone through enough? I'm over it!" Thorogood said.
Rondoletto added: "When (Trump) goes for the people with the least rights, I just can't sit back and let that happen."
Among the crowd gathered at the LGBT Center in Hollywood, Los Angeles, there was a US Army Reserve member and transgender man named Rudy Akbarian, 27. Rudy said at first he thought the news of the Trump's order was a joke. The five-year military veteran said he was "heartbroken" to learn it was real.
Another demonstrator, Yael Leberman, said transgender people "are completely adequate to serve" and combat is "not about physical, it's about mental" abilities.
Other protesters marched on foot outside the White House bearing signs which read: "We're here, we're queer, we hate the f****** president".
New York City Comptroller Scott Stringer was among those present at the protest on Wednesday. He addressed the crowd with a megaphone while poking fun at the president who he said had skipped enlisting to serve in the Vietnam war in the 1960s so that he could "hang out at Studio 54".
Actress Alyssa Milano was also among the protesters and she shared a photo from the demonstration on Instagram, telling her followers: "Trans rights are human rights. I was proud to support the LGBTQ community at the #NoTransBan rally."
Brenda Sue Falton, an Army veteran who was among the first women allowed entry to it and whose wedding at Cadet Chapel in 2012 was the first same sex marriage it has hosted, was also present. Also at the protest was a transgender army veteran and Miss Peppermint, a famous New York City drag queen who appeared on the ninth series of RuPaul's Drag Race.
She addressed the crowd, saying: "It's not that they're afraid of us. You know what they're afraid of? That they're just like us."
Transgender veterans made direct appeals to the president to reconsider the controversial move.
More photos below.
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