Trump replacing Navy secretary in major shakeup as Strait of Hormuz blockade rages

NY Post ^ | April 22, 2026 | By Emily Goodin

[dennisw]

President Trump is replacing his Secretary of the Navy as the blockade of the Strait of Hormuz continues as a key chokepoint in the war against Iran.

John Phelan is leaving, effective immediately, and Undersecretary Hung Cao will become Acting Secretary of the Navy, the Pentagon said Wednesday in a surprise announcement. No reason was given for his departure.

“Secretary of the Navy John C. Phelan is departing the administration, effective immediately,” Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell announced. “We wish him well in his future endeavors.”

Cao, a Navy veteran and failed Virginia Senate candidate, is well-liked by the president.

The secretary of the Navy oversees more than 900,000 people and an annual budget of more than $210 billion.

But the role of late has had one major task: leading the Strait of Hormuz blockade. The Navy is the lead military branch on that mission.

The Strait is essentially in lockdown as the US and Iran remain in a stalemate on peace talks.

Cao is a Vietnamese refugee who came to Virginia as a child and graduated from the US Naval Academy. He was in the service for 25 years with postings in Iraq, Afghanistan and Somalia.

Trump praised his personal story and his military experience when he announced Cao’s nomination for undersecretary.

“Hung is the embodiment of the American Dream. As a refugee to our Great Nation, Hung worked tirelessly to make proud the Country that gave his family a home,” the president said.

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TOPICS: Business/Economy; Conspiracy; History
KEYWORDS: bestpeople; blockaderages; blockheadsrage; cao; fakefreepers; fakenoozersrage; hungcao; iran; iranwar; journosrage; navy; rages; straitofhormuz

[nitzy]

It flowed freely through the straight before this started.

[Albion Wilde]

Here are some of Hung Cao's qualifications according to Wikipedia:

Hung Cao... was a member of the first graduating class of Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology in Fairfax County, Virginia.
Cao entered the U.S. Navy as a seaman recruit in 1989 and graduated from the United States Naval Academy in 1996 with a bachelor's degree in ocean engineering. In 2008, he received a master's of science in applied physics at the Naval Postgraduate School. A specialist in ordnance disposal and salvage diving... He spent over 30 years on active duty in the Navy, retiring as a captain in October 2021. His military career encompassed operational deployments in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Somalia.
Cao earned the Command Ashore Badge, the Navy Diving Officer Badge and the Explosive Ordnance Disposal Warfare Officers Badge. Cao is a vice president of CACI, a U.S. government contractor that provides services to defense, intelligence, and homeland security agencies.

Captain Hung Cao and his son at Marion Military Institute

[Albion Wilde]

This is the third Cabinet Secretary to leave this month. Is there a problem?

Maybe they were not “wartime consiglieri.”

[dennisw]

To repeat — China + Iran control Middle East oil and backed up with Iranian nukes. No big deal for you. This will jack up the price of all Middle East oil (except for China) and will jack up the USA price too. Oil is fungible.

[Albion Wilde]

I think I read Phelan was on some Epstein list.

Took one flight on Epstein's plane from London to New York. Make of it what you will.

[dennisw]

Hung Cao.... His wife takes care of five good looking children, plus is active on the “faith” front. Solid family. She is Caucasian.

[mewzilla]

We aren’t blockading the strait, are we, NYP...

[Albion Wilde]

Hung Cao sounds like the name of a chinese national.

It's Vietnamese. He came here at age four as a refugee with his family, and graduated from what was once the best STEM high school in the nation, Thomas Jefferson High School of Science and Technology (Northern Virginia), before it recently became woke. His father worked for USAID when Cao was a child.

[Albion Wilde]

I thought the days of reflexive schoolyard taunts about ethnic names were behind us. Apparently not. He is a good man whose name does not deserve mocking.

[Albion Wilde]

See Post 89.

[Albion Wilde]

See Post 89.

[Albion Wilde]

Hung Cao.... His wife takes care of five good looking children, plus is active on the “faith” front. Solid family.

That is great to know! Just looked it up:

[MayflowerMadam]

I heard on a podcast this morning that he was involved in the recovery of JFK Jr.’s plane. IDK if true.

[Alas Babylon!]

It’d not a taunt, for goodness sakes! We don’t need to be so woke.

It’s a simple play on words that mean one thing in one language, and another in our language. This happens all over the world for many different languages and no reasonable person gets offended by it.

Everyone is chill with this, including Secretary Cao.

[Albion Wilde]

It's not woke to respect a person's non-English given name, or to avoid casual ethnic slurs. It's good manners.

[Albion Wilde]

Everyone is chill with this, including Secretary Cao.

And you know this how?

[Alas Babylon!]

If you see casual ethnic slurs hear, you are woke. Go to bluesky where your kind gather.

[Albion Wilde]

Darling, I am so not woke. I was alive during the Truman administration. And “here” is not spelled “hear.”

[Alas Babylon!]

In reply to another guy who said something, I replied,

“I thought it was a euphemism for a bull.”

That’s it. Mine was a completely mild form of humor.

It is NOT a casual ethnic slur nor a taunt of any kind.

You lumped all kinds of separate comments together and added me to your scorn list for all on post 89.

And “darling”, I go back to the Eisenhower admin, so only a few years different.

[GreatRoad]

Thank you for the info.