Defense

Navy secretary’s removal points to Trump’s anxiety over shipbuilding

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by Filip Timotija - 04/23/26 7:16 PM ET

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by Filip Timotija - 04/23/26 7:16 PM ET

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The abrupt firing of Navy Secretary John Phelan, the latest head to roll in Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s turbulent Pentagon, points to President Trump’s anxiety over his ambitious and divisive vision for U.S. shipbuilding.

Phelan, a billionaire and Trump fundraiser, was ousted on Wednesday, 13 months into the role, becoming the first service secretary to be removed in Trump’s second term. More than 30 senior military officers have been ousted under Hegseth.

The Navy secretary’s removal, which caught many officials and lawmakers by surprise, comes as the president has aggressively pushed to supercharge U.S. shipbuilding, the commander in chief’s growing priority in efforts to counter China’s industrial and naval might.

Retired Navy Rear Adm. Mark Montgomery said Thursday that he was not “disappointed” with Phelan’s ouster, but he said his grumbles with the Navy secretary were over the Trump-class battleship.

“He and the president cooked up an extremely bad idea, which is a very large target known as a battleship. That’s going to cost $24 to $26 billion minimum. For the first one, which is the cost of like, 12 destroyers,” Montgomery, a senior director for the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD), told reporters Thursday morning.

In late December, Trump announced a new class of battleships as part of the U.S. Navy’s “Golden Fleet,” envisioned as an upgrade to the Navy’s Arleigh Burke-class destroyers.

Trump aimed for the new class of battleships to be built by 2028, a timeline experts argued would be unlikely, saying the new vessels would take billions of dollars and far more time to complete.

The Navy asked for a $377 billion budget for next year, including more than $65.8 billion for shipbuilding, to procure 18 warships, including destroyers and submarines.

CNN reported Wednesday night that Phelan was asked to resign following a meeting between Hegseth and Trump over shipbuilding in which Trump became convinced Phelan needed to go, with Hegseth pledging to find someone who could move more quickly.

A former U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told The Hill on Thursday that Phelan’s firing was related to shipbuilding efforts.

Fox News reported on Thursday that tensions between Hegseth and Phelan had been building for months, in part over the Navy secretary’s execution of shipbuilding plans. Hegseth fired Phelan’s chief of staff, John Harrison, in October.

Phelan’s acting successor will be Hung Cao, a retired U.S. Navy Captain and a U.S. Naval Academy graduate, who previously served as the under secretary of the Navy.

Trump, when asked about Phelan’s removal on Thursday, praised him as a “very good” man, who had some issues, “not necessarily” with Hegseth, but others within the Pentagon.

“He had some conflicts with some other people, mostly as to building and buying new ships. I’m very aggressive in the new shipbuilding, and somehow he just didn’t get along with them. He’s an excellent guy. I think he would have gotten along great with me. I didn’t really deal with him too much,” the president told reporters at the White House.

“I consider him to have done a very good job. I put out a nice statement about him. Got to get along, especially in the military. You got to get along and some people liked him, some people didn’t, and that’s usually the truth about everything,” the president added.

In a Truth Social post earlier Thursday, Trump opened the door for Phelan, who donated close to $1 million to Trump’s fundraising committee during the 2024 election, to rejoin the administration “sometime in the future.

One of Phelan’s most controversial moves within military circles was canceling the Constellation-class frigate program, and focusing instead on the Navy’s Future Frigate, the FF(X), derived from the Coast Guard’s legend-class cutter.

Announced along with Trump’s “Golden Fleet” of new battleships, the FF(X) plans drew questions from figures including retired Navy Capt. Kevin Eyer, who asked if efforts to create more shipbuilding jobs were conflicting with military needs.

“The Navy needs a leaner, mission-focused small surface combatant that multiplies force through clarity of purpose rather than gold-plated excess,” he wrote for the U.S. Naval Institute.

Montgomery, of the FDD, said he was not against Phelan getting rid of the constellation frigate, but the replacement “was the exact opposite of the requirements the Navy would have given him for frigate,” with