https://edition.cnn.com/2026/04/22/politics/john-phelan-navy-secretary-leaving Secretary of the Navy John Phelan was ousted from his position, six sources familiar with the matter told CNN, as Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell announced Wednesday evening that Phelan would be departing “effective immediately.”Three of the sources said that Phelan was given the option to either resign or be fired. It was not immediately clear which he chose.The Navy directed queries about the details of Phelan’s departure to the Office of the Secretary of Defense, which did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The White House directed CNN to a statement from Parnell.“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 said in a post on X. “We wish him well in his future endeavors. Undersecretary Hung Cao will become Acting Secretary of the Navy.”The announcement comes while the US Navy is carrying out a blockade of Iranian ports during a ceasefire in the Iran war. Thus far, US forces have redirected 29 vessels to return to port and have also boarded two ships.Multiple sources told CNN there was tension for months between Phelan and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who believed he was moving too slowly on implementing shipbuilding reforms and was also irked by Phelan’s direct communication with Trump, which Hegseth viewed as an attempt to bypass him. Deputy Defense Secretary Steve Feinberg also wanted to take control of major responsibilities for shipbuilding and navy acquisitions, a job that would typically be within Phelan’s purview.Phelan is a businessman with no prior military service; he and his wife previously fundraised millions of dollars for President Donald Trump’s campaign before he was confirmed as Navy secretary in 2025.
“John will be a tremendous force for our Naval servicemembers, and a steadfast leader in advancing my America First vision,” Trump said at the time. “He will put the business of the US Navy above all else.”It’s unclear what led to Phelan’s departure, which is the first among the military service secretaries nominated under Trump. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has, however, removed numerous senior military officers across the services since taking the helm at the Pentagon.The announcement of his departure comes the same week as a major, annual maritime conference — the Navy League’s annual Sea Air Space conference — was being held just outside of Washington, DC. Phelan and other senior Navy leadership attended and spoke at the conference.CNN previously reported that Phelan’s name appeared on a flight manifest showing that he flew in 2006 on the plane of convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. The manifest showed Phelan flew with Epstein; several other financiers; and one passenger who appeared to be French modeling agent Jean-Luc Brunel, a close associate of Epstein who was facing charges of rape of a minor and sexual assault when he was found dead in his prison cell in 2022.A close friend of Phelan’s said he had been invited to fly on the plane by Bear Stearns CEO Jimmy Cayne, who died in 2021. Phelan did not know they’d be flying on Epstein’s plane until they arrived, the close friend said, and Phelan did not speak or interact with Epstein again.
Also a sign your war is going well when you start mass firing your generals.The Iranians really have trump by his shriveled balls.
>>1508348Hegseth and Patel are starting to sweat lol.
>>1508351I have a feeling that if trump's cabinet weren't so corrupt and incompetent that multiple others are already getting fired, they'd already be kicked to the curb.
>>1508348>Also a sign your war is going well when you start mass firing your generals.Keeping poorly performing generals is the worst possible choice.
>>1508352They're most willing to do whatever he says, which only buys them as much time as it takes for the courts to tell them "yeah you can't".
>>1508353Going to war with shitty generals in the first place is arguably worse. Even if you bring the best possible guys in next (which you're probably not going to do if your initial choice was so shit) they're now going to have to deal with the difficulties of coming into command MID-WAR.
>>1508353Name one general who could unfuck this clusterfuck of alliance spaghetti in all of historyeven napoleonic times I would like to remind you the Egyptians had generals who mentioned in ancient times "Don't attack the Persians"
>>1508364Any competent general would be able to explain that Trump is a spastic retard who started a war because Israel is blackmailing them and chose to use it to pump and dump the stock market multiple times. Ending the US blockade and returning to Obama's anti-nuclear plan would be all thats really needed. Republicans would just go apeshit at the whole 'taking responsibility for your actions' angle
>>1508370are you insane? generals do not dictate foreign policy. they do as they are told. Your post is cringe even for a leftist troon.
>>1508370>Listen, Mr Ayatollah? Hey, it's the American General. Yeah, the one appointed by the Republican party, yeah the Israeli cocksleeves, that Republican party. >Listen, I know we did that whole 'very obviously targeted strike on a school' that killed 200 little girls. Yeah, that school that was on Google Maps, so we can't pretend we didn't know it was a school. Yes, we did strike it three times, twice in the atrium where students would have gathered for emergencies. >But you know, no use crying over spilled milk! Haha. You see, our leader is a corrupt pedophile who is being blackmailed by Israel to attack your country wantonly. So he just decided to 'go along with it' because he was promised by The Great Satan of your religion that your country would fall apart. Yeah.. yknow, oops! Not all things work out like we want, huh? Anyway, since he would rather fuck little girls on an island, we had to kill your little girls in a school. But you know, our girls get fucked yours.. get fucked by shrapnel. It's all the same, right? >So uh, can we open the strait now?Somehow I don't think that the Iranians would accept that even if we DID agree to let them keep tolling ships crossing the strait. Frankly, when you put it in perspective, the Iranians have been exceedingly reasonable already.
>>1508371History lesson for you, shill: trump isn't the first president whose personality was unstable to the point that nuclear codes had to be guarded by military personnel
