{"id":747443,"date":"2026-04-23T10:35:23","date_gmt":"2026-04-23T10:35:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/747443\/"},"modified":"2026-04-23T10:35:23","modified_gmt":"2026-04-23T10:35:23","slug":"pentagon-abruptly-says-navy-secretary-john-phelan-is-departing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/747443\/","title":{"rendered":"Pentagon abruptly says Navy Secretary John Phelan is departing"},"content":{"rendered":"

WASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 Navy Secretary John Phelan is leaving his job, the Pentagon abruptly announced Wednesday, the first head of a military service to depart during President Donald Trump\u2019s second term but just the latest top defense leader to step down<\/a> or be ousted.<\/p>\n

No reason was given for the unexpected departure of the Navy\u2019s top civilian official, coming as the sea service has imposed a blockade of Iranian ports<\/a> and is targeting ships linked to Tehran around the world<\/a> during a tenuous ceasefire in the war<\/a>. Another Trump loyalist is taking over as acting head of the Navy: Undersecretary Hung Cao, a 25-year Navy combat veteran who ran unsuccessful campaigns for the U.S. Senate and House in Virginia.<\/p>\n

Phelan\u2019s departure is the latest in a series of shakeups<\/a> of top leadership at the Pentagon, coming just weeks after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth fired the Army\u2019s top uniformed officer, Gen. Randy George. Hegseth also has fired several other top generals, admirals and defense leaders<\/a> since taking office last year. <\/p>\n

The firings began in February 2025, when Hegseth removed military leaders, including Adm. Lisa Franchetti, the Navy\u2019s top uniformed officer, and Gen. Jim Slife, the No. 2 leader at the Air Force. Trump also fired Gen. Charles \u201cCQ\u201d Brown Jr.<\/a> as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.<\/p>\n

Showing how sudden the latest move was, Phelan had addressed a large crowd of sailors and industry professionals on Tuesday at the Navy\u2019s annual conference in Washington and spoke with reporters about his agenda<\/a>. He also hosted the leaders of the House Armed Services Committee to discuss the Navy\u2019s budget request and efforts to build more ships, according to a social media post from his office.<\/p>\n

Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said in a post on X that Phelan was \u201cdeparting the administration, effective immediately.\u201d<\/p>\n

Phelan had been a major Trump donor<\/p>\n

Phelan had not served in the military or had a civilian leadership role in the service before Trump nominated him for secretary in late 2024. He was seen as an outsider being brought in to shake up the Navy. <\/p>\n

Phelan was a major donor to Trump\u2019s campaign and had founded the private investment firm Rugger Management LLC. According to his biography, Phelan\u2019s primary exposure to the military came from an advisory position he held on the Spirit of America,<\/a> a nonprofit that supported the defense of Ukraine and the defense of Taiwan.<\/p>\n

The Associated Press could not immediately reach Phelan\u2019s office for comment. The White House did not answer questions and instead responded by sending a link to Parnell\u2019s statement.<\/p>\n

Phelan is leaving during a busy time for the Navy. It has three aircraft carriers deployed<\/a> in or heading to the Middle East, while the Trump administration says all the armed forces are poised to resume combat operations against Iran should the ceasefire expire. <\/p>\n

The Navy also has maintained a heavy presence in the Caribbean, where it has been part of a campaign of strikes against alleged drug boats<\/a>. It also played a major role in the capture of Venezuelan leader Nicol\u00e1s Maduro<\/a> in January.<\/p>\n

New acting Navy secretary ran unsuccessful bids for Congress<\/p>\n

Taking over as acting secretary is Cao, who ran a failed U.S. Senate bid in Virginia to try to unseat Democratic Sen. Tim Kaine in 2024. He had Trump\u2019s endorsement in the crowded Republican primary and gave a speech at the 2024 Republican National Convention. <\/p>\n

Cao\u2019s biography includes fleeing Vietnam with his family as a child in the 1970s. In a campaign video for his Senate bid, he compared Vietnam\u2019s communist regime during the Cold War to the administration of Democratic President Joe Biden.<\/p>\n

During his one debate with Kaine, Cao criticized COVID-19 vaccine mandates for service members as well as the military\u2019s diversity, equity and inclusion efforts.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you\u2019re using a drag queen to recruit for the Navy, that\u2019s not the people we want,\u201d Cao said from the debate stage. \u201cWhat we need is alpha males and alpha females who are going to rip out their own guts, eat them and ask for seconds. Those are the young men and women that are going to win wars.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trump and Hegseth have railed against DEI<\/a> in the military, banning the efforts and firing people accused of supporting such programs<\/a>.<\/p>\n

When he ran for Congress in Virginia in 2022, Cao expressed opposition to aid for Ukraine during a debate against his Democratic opponent.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy heart goes out to the Ukrainian people. … But right now we\u2019re borrowing $55 billion from China to pay for the war in Ukraine. Not only that, we\u2019re depleting our national strategic reserves,\u201d Cao said.<\/p>\n

Cao graduated from the prestigious Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology in Alexandria, Virginia, before attending the U.S. Naval Academy.<\/p>\n

He was commissioned as a special operations officer and went on to serve with SEAL teams and special forces in Iraq, Afghanistan and Somalia before retiring at the rank of captain, according to his Senate campaign biography. <\/p>\n

Cao also earned a master\u2019s degree in physics and had fellowships at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard University.<\/p>\n

Since becoming Navy undersecretary, Cao has championed returning to duty service members that refused a Biden-era mandate to take the COVID-19 vaccine.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

Associated Press writer Michelle L. Price contributed to this report.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 Navy Secretary John Phelan is leaving his job, the Pentagon abruptly announced Wednesday, the first…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":747444,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[4,3],"tags":[97,272269,13214,84,69,57,2055,3461,6087,307666,82,101933,307667,8132,50,92550,6986,80,307665,26562,2053,4335,25731,67,96561,132,68,15336,906,96,93,107],"class_list":["post-747443","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-states","category-us","tag-2024-2025-mideast-wars","tag-2024-2026-mideast-wars","tag-asia-pacific","tag-district-of-columbia","tag-donald-trump","tag-general-news","tag-government-and-politics","tag-iran-government","tag-iran-war","tag-jim-slife","tag-joe-biden","tag-john-phelan","tag-lisa-franchetti","tag-military-and-defense","tag-news","tag-nicolas-maduro","tag-pete-hegseth","tag-politics","tag-randy-george","tag-sean-parnell","tag-tehran","tag-thomas-jefferson","tag-u-s-department-of-defense","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-senate","tag-unitedstates","tag-us","tag-vietnam","tag-virginia","tag-war-and-unrest","tag-washington-news","tag-world-news"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/747443","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=747443"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/747443\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/747444"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=747443"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=747443"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=747443"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}