by Victoria Miele ’28 on April 30, 2026
News
On Wednesday, April 22, Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell announced Secretary of the Navy John Phelan would be leaving “effective immediately.” The announcement came as a surprise, especially as the United States Navy is carrying out a blockade of Iranian ports during a ceasefire in the Iran war. Parnell did not provide an exact reason for why Phelan would be leaving, but he did say the new acting Navy Secretary will be Undersecretary Hung Cao.
It has been reported that Phelan had growing tensions with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth due to his slow implementation of shipbuilding reform and his close relationship with President Donald Trump. They clashed not only over shipbuilding but also over the Golden Fleet, Trump’s naval initiative, as well as the deployment of ships around the world. Additionally, Phelan had a tense relationship with the Pentagon’s No. 2, Stephen Feinberg, due to the way Feinberg took some of the decision-making on shipbuilding away from Phelan.
Phelan’s leaving comes in the middle of the U.S. naval blockade of Iran. Recently the American military seized two ships in the Strait of Hormuz, which Iran has called a violation of the ceasefire agreement. Karoline Leavitt, White House Press Secretary, said on Wednesday, April 22, that the actions were not a violation of the cease-fire because the ships seized were “international vessels,” and continued to promote the idea that the blockade was “massively effective.”
Multiple officials stated that the firing of the Navy Secretary while the U.S. is enforcing a naval blockade caught many people in Congress and the Pentagon by surprise. A senior administration official stated that, “President Trump and Secretary Hegseth agreed new leadership at the Navy is needed,” and that, “Secretary Hegseth informed John Phelan of his news prior to it being made public,” contrary to what some people believed about him finding out from a post on X.
Lawmakers were surprised by the dismissal, and there was no immediate response from Senator Roger Wicker, the Republican chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, who represents major shipbuilding state Mississippi. Senator Jack Reed from Rhode Island, the ranking member of the committee, expressed concern about the firing, saying, “Secretary Phelan’s abrupt dismissal is troubling. I am concerned it is yet another example of the instability and dysfunction that have come to define the Department of Defense under President Trump and Secretary Hegseth.”
Phelan’s departure comes after Hegseth forced out the Army’s top officer and two other Army generals earlier this month. He has fired numerous officials since his tenure in 2025, including Air Force Lt. Gen. Jeffrey Kruse, who headed the Pentagon’s Defense Intelligence Agency, after an initial assessment of the agency found that U.S. strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities were not as extensive as Trump had indicated.
Interestingly, nearly a full day after Phelan had left, Trump praised his former Navy Secretary and suggested he would like to see him return to the administration at some point. Undersecretary Hung Cao will be the acting Navy Secretary amid this time of unrest.