Trump says former Navy Secretary John Phelan left over 'conflict' with others at the Pentagon
President Donald Trump said Thursday that Secretary of the Navy John Phelan left his position because of "conflict" between him and others in the Department of Defense over shipbuilding.
Trump said the conflicts weren't with Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, but he didn't identify those at DOD that Phelan had conflicts with.
"I really liked him, but he had some conflict with, not necessarily Pete, with some other," Trump told reporters in the Oval Office. He's a hard-charger. And he had some conflicts with some other people, mostly as to, building and buying new ships.
On Wednesday, Sean Parnell, the Pentagon's top spokesman, said Phelan was "departing the administration, effective immediately." An administration official told ABC News that Phelan "was asked to step down."
Phelan and Hegseth had previously clashed, sources familiar told ABC News.
Trump said that while Phelan was "a very good man," he also said that officials have "got to get along. Especially in the military, you got to get along, you know. And -- and some people liked him, some people didn't.”
Parnell said Undersecretary of the Navy Hung Cao will serve as acting Secretary of the Navy.
"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," Parnell said in his statement.
Phelan was appointed to his position in March 2025.
The secretary of the Navy is the service's top civilian official. The secretary and the Chief of Naval Operations, the Navy's top admiral, are responsible for training and equipping the Navy. They do not have responsibilities for running combat operations like the one against Iran, which falls to regional commanders.
According to his Department of the Navy biography, Phelan was founder and chairman of Rugger Management, a private investment firm based in Palm Beach, Florida. Before launching Rugger, he was a co-founder and co-managing partner of MSD Capital, a private investment firm for Michael Dell, and MSD Partners, which managed investments for third-party investors.
He earned a master's degree from Harvard Business School and graduated Phi Beta Kappa, cum laude with distinction from Southern Methodist University with a bachelor's in economics and political science.
Phelan also earned a general course degree in economics and international relations from the London School of Economics.
