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The Pentagon announced this Wednesday the immediate departure of John C. Phelan as Secretary of the Navy of the United States, making him the first head of a military service to be removed during the second term of President Donald Trump.
The Pentagon spokesperson, Sean Parnell, confirmed the dismissal through a post on social media platform X: "Secretary of the Navy John C. Phelan is leaving the administration, effective immediately."
In the same statement, Parnell added: "On behalf of the Secretary of War and the Under Secretary of War, we thank Secretary Phelan for his service to the Department and to the United States Navy. We wish him all the best in his future endeavors."
According to six sources familiar with the matter cited by CNN, Phelan was given the option to resign or be fired, with no clarification on which option he chose.
Phelan, a financial entrepreneur with no prior naval experience, had been sworn in as the 79th Secretary of the Navy on March 25, 2025, after being confirmed by the Senate with a bipartisan vote of 62-30. He served in the position for just over a year.
Tensions with Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and Deputy Secretary Stephen Feinberg are attributed to Phelan's support for a new battleship and his difficulties in increasing naval construction, a priority of the Trump administration.
Over time, Phelan began to lose key responsibilities: Feinberg took over the submarine programs and the Budget Office took control of shipbuilding.
Hegseth had already dismissed Phelan's chief of staff, Jon Harrison, in October 2025, and sources described him as "disconnected" from naval service.
The dismissal occurred just one day after Phelan spoke to reporters at the Navy League's Sea-Air-Space conference —the largest naval-themed conference in the country— where he presented a budget proposal of $378 billion.
"This is a budget driven by strategy," Phelan stated in a press release during the event.
The moment of departure is particularly sensitive: the U.S. Navy has been implementing an unprecedented naval blockade of Iranian ports since April 13, within the context of the war between Washington and Tehran, having intercepted over 25 commercial vessels by April 19.
Hung Cao, Deputy Secretary of the Navy, has been appointed as Acting Secretary, succeeding Phelan. Cao is a Vietnamese refugee who arrived in the United States in 1975 and a veteran with 32 years of service in the Navy, confirmed in his position on October 1, 2025.
Phelan's removal is part of a broader trend in the Trump administration to purge high-ranking civilian and military officials from the Pentagon.
Hegseth, since his arrival, has driven a restructuring of the Department of Defense —internally rebranded as the "Department of War"— that has included the dismissal of four-star generals and civilian officials accused of not aligning with the administration's agenda.
Admiral Mark Montgomery, defense analyst, was critical of the outgoing official's management: "He was not a successful service secretary. Too many of his good ideas were not sufficiently developed, and his bad ideas are harming the force."
Phelan's dismissal occurs one week before Hegseth appears before Congress to defend a proposed defense budget of 1.5 trillion dollars.
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