Navy Secretary John Phelan Out 'Effective Immediately' After 13 Months; Hung Cao Becomes Acting SECNAV
The Pentagon announced Wednesday that Secretary of the Navy John C. Phelan is leaving the Trump administration effective immediately. Navy Undersecretary Hung Cao steps in as Acting Secretary. No reason was given for the abrupt exit, the first departure of a service secretary in Trump's second term.
Chief Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell announced on X Wednesday evening that Secretary of the Navy John C. Phelan is "departing the administration, effective immediately," 13 months after his March 2025 Senate confirmation.
"On behalf of the Secretary of War and Deputy Secretary of War, we are grateful to Secretary Phelan for his service to the Department and the United States Navy," Parnell wrote, using the renamed Pentagon titles that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Deputy Secretary Steve Feinberg have adopted. "We wish him well in his future endeavors."
The statement gave no reason for Phelan's exit. He is the first head of a military service to depart during President Trump's second term and the latest in a string of senior defense officials who have stepped down or been pushed out of the Pentagon over the past year.
The acting successor
Navy Undersecretary Hung Cao becomes Acting Secretary of the Navy. A Naval Academy graduate and retired Navy captain, Cao spent 25 years on active duty as an Explosive Ordnance Disposal and special operations officer with deployments to Iraq, Afghanistan and Somalia. He worked at the Pentagon in budget programming after his Navy career and ran unsuccessfully for the U.S. House in Virginia in 2022 and for the U.S. Senate in 2024 as the Republican nominee. President Trump nominated him as Navy Undersecretary in early 2025; he was confirmed and sworn in shortly after Phelan.
What Phelan was doing the day before
Phelan addressed sailors and defense industry executives at the Navy's annual Sea-Air-Space conference in Washington on Tuesday and spoke with reporters about his agenda. The Wednesday announcement of his immediate departure followed within roughly 24 hours, with no public foreshadowing.
Context: a turbulent Pentagon
Phelan's departure adds to a list of high-profile Pentagon exits that has included senior uniformed and civilian officials over the past year. Wire has previously documented related developments, including the Pentagon Inspector General's March memo restricting use of the "Department of War" title in court filings — a renaming that nonetheless persists in spokesperson statements like the one announcing Phelan's exit.