This story is developing...

UPDATE:

'The administration really wanted to accelerate the shipbuilding program because of the president’s agenda … and the secretary seemed incapable of accomplishing those goals and he wasn’t well liked,' a source told The New York Post. 

'When you combine incompetence with arrogance it usually doesn’t end well.'

Washington — In a surprise move, the Pentagon announced Wednesday that Secretary of the Navy John Phelan is leaving his post effective immediately, marking the first departure of a service secretary under President Donald Trump’s second administration.

Reuters is reporting Phelan was fired with no details given.

Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell confirmed the news in a social media post, stating: “Secretary of the Navy John C. Phelan is departing the administration, effective immediately. 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. We wish him well in his future endeavors. Undersecretary Hung Cao will become Acting Secretary of the Navy.”

No official reason was provided for Phelan’s abrupt exit. The announcement came just one day after Phelan delivered a high-profile keynote address at the Sea-Air-Space Exposition in National Harbor, Maryland, where he strongly advocated for the Trump-class battleship as a key element of President Trump’s “Golden Fleet” initiative.

During his Tuesday speech, Phelan dismissed critics of the large, expensive platform, comparing the skepticism to past doubts about aircraft carriers and submarines. “I’ve heard the critiques: too vulnerable, too expensive, too big,” he said. “We’ve heard that before about carriers and about submarines. And yet, when it matters most, those are the platforms combatant commanders call for first.”

Phelan gave no public indication that his tenure was coming to an end. He was confirmed by the Senate as Navy Secretary in March 2025. Prior to his appointment, he had a background in private equity, co-founding and managing a firm associated with MSD Capital, LP, which represented the interests of Dell Technologies founder Michael Dell. He had no prior military service.

The Navy referred questions to the Office of the Secretary of Defense, which declined to provide further comment beyond Parnell’s statement.

Undersecretary of the Navy Hung Cao will now serve as acting secretary. Cao, a former Navy captain who enlisted as a seaman recruit in 1989 and graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1996, brings extensive operational experience, including deployments to Iraq, Afghanistan, and Somalia. After retiring from active duty, he worked as a vice president at CACI International. The Senate confirmed him as Under Secretary in October 2025.

Phelan’s departure adds to a series of high-level changes at the Pentagon in recent months. It occurs as the U.S. Navy is actively involved in enforcing a blockade of Iranian ports and interdicting vessels linked to Tehran amid a fragile ceasefire in the Middle East.