‘Helped rebuild Sleepy Joe Biden’s depleted Navy’: Trump is all praise for ousted Navy chief even as Pentagon admits his leadership was a disaster
Strategic restructuring.
President Donald Trump is publicly praising his recently ousted Navy Secretary John Phelan, calling him a “long time friend” who did an “outstanding job” rebuilding the Navy. This comes just a day after the Pentagon removed Phelan from his post following months of tensions with senior leadership. Trump’s Truth Social post paints a glowing picture of Phelan’s tenure, but behind the scenes, things were far from smooth.
According to Fox News, Trump’s post on Thursday afternoon was full of praise for Phelan, who he said helped rebuild what he called “Sleepy Joe Biden’s rapidly depleted, and almost abandoned, Navy.” Trump went on to say that because of Phelan, the U.S. now has “the strongest Navy in the World — BY FAR!”
He also made it clear he’d like to bring Phelan back into his administration at some point in the future. The post framed Phelan’s departure as his own decision to “move on,” but that’s not the full story.
There were serious concerns about Phelan’s leadership
Multiple officials said that both War Secretary Pete Hegseth and Deputy Defense Secretary Stephen Feinberg expressed these concerns. A major flashpoint came in October 2025 when Hegseth fired Phelan’s chief of staff John Harrison. Sources said the frustrations were partly due to concerns over how Phelan was handling major shipbuilding programs, critical now as the Navy faces escalating global tensions.
U.S. forces are currently dealing with a blockade in the Strait of Hormuz. Trump has been pushing the Navy into a “wartime footing” to expand the nation’s lagging shipbuilding capacity, but Phelan’s tenure was marked by delays and cost overruns in key programs. The Navy’s top priority, the Columbia-class submarine program, will be delayed by about 17 months, with the lead vessel not arriving until 2029.
Phelan, a billionaire businessman and former Trump fundraiser, took over as Navy Secretary in 2025 with no prior military experience. Trump had high hopes for him at the time. But from the start, Phelan’s leadership style clashed with Pentagon officials. Hegseth grew frustrated that Phelan often bypassed him and took issues directly to Trump, which didn’t sit well with the chain of command.
The tensions reached a breaking point when Feinberg moved to centralize oversight of major shipbuilding programs, effectively stripping Phelan of authority over some key efforts. Phelan also drew scrutiny for suggesting the Navy could explore outsourcing shipbuilding to address capacity constraints.
At the Sea-Air-Space conference earlier this week, he said, “Everything’s on the table. We just need to look at it, understand it, understand the implications behind it and decide if we think that makes sense or not.” That kind of talk didn’t go over well with Pentagon leadership, who saw it as a sign of instability.
The behind-the-scenes drama was messy
According to CNN, Trump told Hegseth to “take care of it,” which meant Phelan needed to resign or be fired. Hegseth sent Phelan a message informing him of the decision, but Phelan didn’t seem to believe Trump was fully on board. He started calling other White House officials, asking if they’d heard he was being asked to resign and whether Trump knew about it.
When Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell announced Phelan’s removal on X Wednesday, it became clear. Phelan still sought confirmation from Trump himself. When the two finally spoke briefly in the West Wing lobby, Trump confirmed that Phelan was out. Nearly a full day later, Trump posted his glowing praise of Phelan on Truth Social, making it sound like Phelan had left on his own terms.
Phelan’s departure is part of a broader Cabinet shakeup
Since March, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, Attorney General Pam Bondi, and Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-Deremer have all left. Phelan is also the second senior Pentagon official to lose his job in April, following the exit of Army Chief of Staff Randy George amid the U.S. operation against Iran.
Hung Cao, the Navy’s under secretary, has stepped in as acting Navy secretary. Unlike Phelan, he’s a retired Navy captain and special operations officer with more than two decades of military experience, including deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan. Cao has been a vocal advocate for military culture and readiness, taking a hardline stance on recruiting and force standards.
During a political debate in October 2024 while running for Virginia’s Senate seat, he said, “When you’re using a drag queen…to recruit for the Navy, that’s not the people we need. What we need is alpha males and alpha females who are going to rip out their own guts, eat them and ask for seconds.”
His tenure wasn’t just marked by leadership clashes
His name also appeared on a 2006 flight manifest for Jeffrey Epstein’s plane, alongside several other financiers and a passenger who appeared to be French modeling agent Jean-Luc Brunel. Brunel, a close associate of Epstein, was facing charges of rape of a minor and sexual assault when he died in his prison cell in 2022.
A close friend of Phelan’s said he was invited to fly on the plane by Bear Stearns CEO Jimmy Cayne, who died in 2021. Phelan didn’t know they’d be flying on Epstein’s plane until they arrived, and he never spoke or interacted with Epstein again after that flight.
For now, Trump’s praise of Phelan stands in sharp contrast to the Pentagon’s assessment of his leadership. While Trump called him “smart, tough, and respected by all,” the reality is that Phelan’s tenure was marked by internal conflicts, program delays, and a lack of trust from senior officials.
(Featured image: U.S. Navy photo by Petty Officer 1st Class Samantha Jetzer)
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