Hegseth Fires Navy Secretary Phelan — During a Naval Blockade of Iran

On April 22, 2026, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth informed Navy Secretary John Phelan that he needed to resign or be fired. Phelan was out "effective immediately" after 13 months. Navy Undersecretary Hung Cao — a combat veteran who lost two Virginia congressional campaigns — was named acting Navy Secretary.

The firing happened while the U.S. Navy is executing an active blockade of the Strait of Hormuz — the most significant naval operation in decades, involving the interdiction of commercial shipping near the world's most important oil chokepoint, during a war where Iran has fired on tankers and closed the strait multiple times.

Why Phelan was fired

According to multiple sources familiar with the situation:

• Hegseth believed Phelan was moving too slowly on shipbuilding reforms
• Hegseth was irked that Phelan communicated directly with Trump, which he saw as an attempt to bypass the Defense Secretary's authority
• Deputy Defense Secretary Steve Feinberg wanted to take control of major shipbuilding and Navy acquisition responsibilities — duties that were Phelan's
• An administration source: "Phelan didn't understand he wasn't the boss. His job is to follow orders given, not follow the orders he thinks should be given."

In other words: a cabinet-level official was fired during a war because he talked to the president without his boss's permission, and because another official wanted his portfolio. The civilian leader of the Navy was removed in the middle of the Navy's most consequential operation because of an ego dispute about chain of command — from a Defense Secretary who quotes Pulp Fiction at prayer meetings and whose own boss has been told he's "bored" with the war.

The pattern

This is the second senior military/defense leader Hegseth has fired during the Iran war:

• March 31: Fired Army Chief of Staff General Randy George — during active ground operations
• April 22: Fired Navy Secretary John Phelan — during an active naval blockade

Hegseth has also personally struck Black and female officers from promotion lists, been rebuked by the Pope for weaponizing Christianity to justify the war, been accused of lying to Trump about how the war is going, and is the subject of an Atlantic exposé describing him as a leader whose subordinates question his grasp of military operations.

The Navy is now led by an acting secretary with no prior executive experience in defense leadership, operating the most significant naval blockade since the Cuban Missile Crisis, while the Defense Secretary who ordered the change is the same man the Pope told: "Your hands are full of blood."