Trump Administration Fires Navy Secretary John Phelan Amid Shipbuilding Disputes and Ethics Inquiry

John Phelan, the secretary of the Navy in the Trump administration, was fired on Wednesday after months of internal disputes over shipbuilding reforms and strained relationships with senior Pentagon leaders.

The Pentagon confirmed Phelan’s departure, marking the first removal of a service secretary in the Trump administration. His firing followed prolonged disagreements with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Deputy Secretary of Defense Steve Feinberg, and his own deputy, Hung Cao, over the pace and direction of efforts to revitalize the Navy’s struggling shipbuilding program.

According to sources familiar with the situation, Phelan was perceived as moving too slowly on shipbuilding initiatives that Trump personally prioritized. Feinberg had sought to centralize all Navy shipbuilding and major acquisition responsibilities under his office, a move that reportedly succeeded amid the growing tension.

An ongoing ethics investigation into Phelan’s office also contributed to the decision, though officials emphasized that the firing was unrelated to the concurrent naval blockade of Iran’s Strait of Hormuz, where Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps had recently seized two container ships over alleged maritime violations.

Hung Cao, a former refugee and veteran naval officer who had previously run for federal office in Virginia, was named acting secretary of the Navy following Phelan’s removal. Cao had been appointed by Hegseth to focus on modernizing base infrastructure, improving quality-of-life conditions for sailors and marines, and raising recruiting standards.

Cao has been a prominent figure in the administration’s efforts to eliminate diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) policies in the military and has advocated for stricter recruiting criteria, famously stating in a 2024 Senate debate that the military should seek “alpha males and alpha females who are going to rip out their own guts, eat them, and ask for seconds.”

At his confirmation hearing, Cao described an aircraft carrier as “99,000 tons of American diplomacy” but criticized the Navy’s current readiness, noting that ship availability hovered around 60%, which he called “horrid.”

The leadership change at the Navy Department underscores the administration’s continued focus on military readiness and shipbuilding capacity, even as it navigates broader geopolitical tensions in the Middle East. No immediate successor has been named beyond Cao’s acting role.