Hegseth fires Navy Secretary Phelan amid Pentagon infighting, Cao takes over

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth abruptly removed Navy Secretary John Phelan, a move that underscored how unsettled the Pentagon’s chain of command has become under the Trump administration. The Pentagon said Phelan was leaving “effective immediately,” and Hung Cao, the Navy’s undersecretary, was named acting secretary.

Phelan’s exit came after just over a year in office. He was sworn in as the 79th secretary of the Navy on March 25, 2025, after entering the post with no prior naval service and a background in business. That made him an unconventional choice to oversee a department responsible for nearly one million Sailors, Marines, reservists and civilian personnel, along with an annual budget of $263.5 billion and balance sheet assets of $922 billion.

The firing lands at a moment when Navy leaders are trying to sell a major strategic reset. Phelan had been publicly visible just days earlier at the Navy League’s Sea-Air-Space symposium in National Harbor, Maryland, where the service was rolling out its fiscal 2026 budget proposal and a broader “Golden Fleet” shipbuilding push. His departure now raises questions about whether that agenda will keep the same momentum, or whether it will be slowed by the latest leadership shake-up.

Administration officials have offered no detailed explanation for the dismissal, but the move fits a broader pattern of abrupt personnel changes inside Hegseth’s Pentagon. A White House official said Donald Trump and Hegseth agreed on the need for new Navy leadership, and that Hegseth informed Phelan before the public announcement. That sequence suggests the decision was made at the top, not triggered by a gradual loss of confidence.

Still, the timing points to more than a simple personnel change. Political reporting has linked Phelan’s exit to internal Pentagon infighting and to tension over his support for a new battleship initiative, an idea that appears to have intensified disputes over the Navy’s future force structure. In a department where shipbuilding delays, industrial capacity constraints and readiness gaps already weigh heavily, a sudden leadership turnover can ripple far beyond one office in the Pentagon.

Phelan’s removal leaves Cao to steady the service while the Navy tries to preserve continuity in budgeting, shipbuilding and personnel policy. At a time when the administration is pressing for a more aggressive maritime buildup, the episode exposed a Pentagon still struggling to align political direction, military strategy and institutional stability.