Hegseth Ousts Navy Secretary Phelan Mid-Blockade After Shipbuilding Power Struggle🚨🇺🇸 Hegseth just fired the Navy Secretary...
John Phelan is out.
The firing comes during the Navy's biggest conference of the year, one day after the Pentagon rolled out its $65.8 billion shipbuilding budget, while more than 15 American warships are actively enforcing the blockade on Iranian ports.
The backstory is messier than the headline.
Phelan had a direct line to Trump. Regular Mar-a-Lago meetings.
Middle-of-the-night shipbuilding texts with the president.
Last fall he pitched Trump on a modern battleship program, bypassing Hegseth entirely.
Hegseth responded by creating a new czar for submarine acquisition, a job that normally lives under the Navy, and making it report directly to Deputy Secretary Feinberg instead.
It was a slow squeeze. This is the finishing move.
Phelan is now the latest in a string of senior firings under Hegseth's Pentagon, including Army Chief of Staff Gen. Randy George.
Hung Cao, a Navy veteran and former Virginia Senate candidate, takes over as acting secretary.
Firing the Navy Secretary during a live naval blockade is not routine personnel management.
Somebody thought the timing was worth the risk.
