Pete Hegseth’s crusade drove a transgender veteran from military service and into homelessness

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s crusade to drive transgender troops from military service left one veteran homeless after years of service.

Chloe Shapiro, a former member of the Army National Guard, told The Washington Post that she has received only $20,000 of the $86,665.32 in severance she was promised. More than $66,000 remained unpaid months after her discharge.

Despite more than a decade of service, Shapiro said she didn’t fight the Trump administration’s renewed effort to purge transgender troops from the U.S. military. But she has been unable to move on because the federal government discharged her without providing the money she was owed to attend college and pursue a new career.

“If I had that money, everything would have landed where it needed to be,” Shapiro said.

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The situation left her sleeping in her Honda Accord or relying on the kindness of strangers. She told the Post that two trans women had allowed her to stay temporarily in a basement after she relocated from Texas to Seattle, part of a wave of transgender refugees flooding the Pacific Northwest city’s nonprofit network after fleeing anti-transgender policies in red states.

The Post identified at least a dozen other transgender veterans who had been discharged but had not received the full severance payments owed to them. Some were owed far more than Shapiro.

Last year, 17 Air Force members were promised early retirement in exchange for voluntarily leaving the service, only for the Trump administration to try to rescind those agreements, prompting an ongoing lawsuit.

Other troops are fighting their removal from the military. Last week, the administration asked the U.S. Supreme Court to allow it to discharge them while a legal challenge unfolds, despite lower courts siding with the plaintiffs.

Shapiro’s story drew attention in part because she enlisted at age 17 and served for 12 years. She served as a combat engineer and a noncommissioned officer in charge of training programs. Shapiro did not come out as transgender until President Joe Biden’s administration, and her supervisors were initially supportive.

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Then Trump returned to power, and transgender service members were given an ultimatum: Leave voluntarily with severance or forgo the money and risk a dishonorable discharge while waiting to be forced out. Shapiro chose the former, abandoning plans to serve for at least 20 years. The Texas Army National Guard put her on administrative leave in June 2025, and she was discharged Feb. 1. The Army’s pay office says separation payments are generally processed within five business days.

Shapiro’s story is especially striking because Trump promised early in his second term to end veteran homelessness, not contribute to it. He announced plans to house former troops living on the streets, even as the now-defunct Department of Government Efficiency eliminated government jobs held by veterans, and the administration sought to restrict access to Medicaid and other safety net programs.