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votes to become defence secretary, referred to the names of Confederate generals that were once used for two key bases during his remarks to reporters as he entered the Pentagon on his first full day on the job.

Trump signed the executive orders while flying back from Miami to Washington DC.

One of the executive orders signed by Trump said that expressing a “gender identity” different from an individual’s sex at birth did not meet military standards.

While the order banned the use of “invented” pronouns in the military, it did not answer basic questions including whether transgender soldiers currently serving in the military would be allowed to stay and, if not, how they would be removed.

Trump’s plans have been heavily criticised by advocacy groups, which say his actions would be illegal.

“President Trump has made clear that a key priority for his administration is driving transgender people back into the closet and out of public life altogether,” Joshua Block, with the ACLU, said earlier on Monday.

Trump also signed an executive order that “mandated a process to develop an ‘American Iron Dome’.”

The short-range Iron Dome air defense system was built by Israel’s Rafael Advanced Defense Systems with US backing, and was built to intercept rockets fired by the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas in Gaza towards Israel.

Trump’s administration on Monday fired more than a dozen Justice Department lawyers who brought two criminal cases against him, an official said.

The officials were fired after Acting Attorney General James McHenry, a Trump appointee, concluded they “could not be trusted to faithfully implement the President’s agenda because of their significant role in prosecuting the President,” a Justice Department official said.