Pentagon Says Navy Secretary John Phelan Is Leaving, In Latest Departure Of A Top Defense Leader | EUROtoday

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Pentagon introduced Wednesday that the Navy’s prime civilian official, Secretary of the Navy John Phelan, is leaving his job.

In a press release posted to social media, Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell mentioned Phelan was “departing the administration, effective immediately.”

Navy Undersecretary Hung Cao will turn out to be appearing secretary of the Navy, Parnell mentioned.

The sudden departure comes only a day after Phelan addressed a big crowd of sailors and business professionals on the Navy’s annual convention in Washington, D.C., and spoke with reporters about his agenda.

Phelan’s departure additionally comes simply weeks after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth fired the Army’s prime officer, Gen. Randy George. Hegseth additionally has fired a number of prime generals, admirals and different protection leaders since taking workplace final yr. As with a lot of these different firings, Pentagon officers didn’t supply a motive for Phelan’s departure.

Phelan is leaving simply because the U.S. Navy has imposed a blockade of Iranian ports and is focusing on ships linked to Tehran all over the world throughout a tenuous ceasefire within the Iran struggle.

Phelan had not served within the army or had a civilian management function within the service earlier than President Donald Trump nominated him for secretary in late 2024.

Phelan was a significant donor to Trump’s marketing campaign and based the personal funding agency Rugger Management LLC. According to his biography, Phelan’s main publicity to the army got here from an advisory place he held on the Spirit of America, a non-profit that supported the protection of Ukraine and the protection of Taiwan.

The Associated Press couldn’t instantly attain Phelan’s workplace for remark.

Cao ran a failed U.S. Senate bid in Virginia to attempt to unseat Democratic Sen. Tim Kaine in 2024. He had Trump’s endorsement within the crowded Republican main.

Cao is a 25-year Navy veteran who served in fight zones. His biography consists of fleeing Vietnam along with his household as a baby within the Nineteen Seventies. In a marketing campaign video for his Senate bid, he in contrast Vietnam’s communist regime throughout the Cold War to the administration of President Joe Biden.

“We are losing our country,” Cao mentioned in video throughout the marketing campaign, which blamed Biden for the prison circumstances in opposition to Trump and confirmed footage of border crossings and retailer lootings. “You know it. But you also know that you can’t say it. We’re forced to say that wrong is right. We’re forced to lie.”