John Phelan exit row: Why Hung Cao once said ‘we are losing our country’; Acting Navy Secretary's remark in focus

Cao is a 54-year-old Navy veteran who served with special operations forces in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Somalia; he fled Vietnam as a child in the 1970s; he studied at MIT and Harvard, and has been an outspoken voice on military policy issues.

Phelan was described as a major donor to Trump's campaign, founder of Rugger Management LLC, and had an advisory role with Spirit of America, which supports defense initiatives related to Ukraine and Taiwan.

The Pentagon confirmed that John Phelan is departing the administration, effective immediately, and Hung Cao was named acting Navy Secretary. Spokesperson Sean Parnell provided the confirmation.

Just a day prior to his departure, Phelan addressed Navy personnel and industry leaders at a major Washington conference and held meetings on shipbuilding and budget priorities.

The departure of Phelan marks the first departure of a military service chief during President Donald Trump’s second term, amid a broader pattern of leadership upheaval within the Defense Department.

During his 2024 Virginia Senate campaign, Hung Cao said in a campaign video: 'We are losing our country' and argued that '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.' He criticized military diversity efforts, saying, 'When you're using a drag queen to recruit for the Navy, that's not the people we want. What we need is alpha males and alpha females who are going to rip out their own guts, eat them and ask for seconds.' On foreign policy, he added: 'My heart goes out to the Ukrainian people. ... But right now we're borrowing $55 billion from China to pay for the war in Ukraine. Not only that, we're depleting our national strategic reserves.'