Pentagon abruptly says Navy Secretary John Phelan is departing

Navy Secretary John Phelan is leaving his job effective immediately, the Pentagon announced Wednesday, the service’s top civilian leader departing without any stated reason. The Pentagon said Undersecretary Hung Cao will serve as acting Navy secretary, with Cao stepping in as the Navy continues operations described by the administration as tied to a ceasefire involving Iran.

Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said in a post on X that Phelan was “departing the administration, effective immediately.” The White House declined to answer questions beyond directing reporters to Parnell’s statement, the Associated Press reported.

The Pentagon’s announcement placed Phelan’s departure within a period of rapid personnel changes at senior levels in the Department of Defense. AP reported that Phelan’s exit was the latest in a series of shakeups that have come during President Donald Trump’s second term, including leadership departures or firings across the services and at the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

AP said no reason was given for Phelan’s unexpected departure. The timing came as the Navy, according to AP, was imposing a blockade of Iranian ports and targeting ships linked to Tehran around the world during a tenuous ceasefire.

Phelan, who had not previously served in the military in a career capacity, was nominated for secretary in late 2024 and described by AP as seen as an outsider brought in to shake up the Navy. AP said Phelan had been a major donor to Trump’s campaign and had founded the private investment firm Rugger Management LLC, with his biography describing advisory work connected to a nonprofit that supported defense of Ukraine and defense of Taiwan.

AP reported that the Associated Press could not immediately reach Phelan’s office for comment. The White House, AP said, did not answer questions and instead sent a link to Parnell’s statement.

As acting secretary, Cao will lead the Navy’s civilian-military operations at a moment when the service is described as active in multiple theaters. AP said the Navy has three aircraft carriers deployed in or heading to the Middle East, and it has also maintained a heavy presence in the Caribbean as part of a campaign of strikes against alleged drug boats. AP also said the Navy played a major role in the capture of Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro in January.

Cao’s background includes unsuccessful bids for Congress in Virginia, according to AP. AP reported that Cao ran for the U.S. Senate in 2024 to try to unseat Democratic Sen. Tim Kaine, and that Trump endorsed Cao in the Republican primary and that Cao gave a speech at the 2024 Republican National Convention. AP also reported that Cao had in his political work compared Vietnam’s communist era during the Cold War to the administration of Democratic President Joe Biden.

AP said Cao also criticized COVID-19 vaccine mandates for service members and the military’s diversity, equity and inclusion efforts during a debate with Kaine. In that debate, AP reported, Cao said, “When you’re using a drag queen to recruit for the Navy, that’s not the people we want,” and added, “What 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.”

When AP described Cao’s earlier campaign positions, it also reported that Cao expressed opposition to aid for Ukraine in a 2022 debate while running for Congress in Virginia. AP reported Cao said at the time, “My heart goes out to the Ukrainian people. … But right now we’re borrowing $55 billion from China to pay for the war in Ukraine. Not only that, we’re depleting our national strategic reserves,” and that he later graduated from Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology before attending the U.S. Naval Academy.

AP said Cao served as a special operations officer with SEAL teams and special forces in Iraq, Afghanistan and Somalia before retiring at the rank of captain. AP also said Cao earned a master’s degree in physics and had fellowships at MIT and Harvard University, and that since becoming Navy undersecretary he has championed returning to duty service members who refused a Biden-era mandate to take the COVID-19 vaccine.