US Navy Secretary John Phelan has stepped down from his position in the Trump administration, according to the Pentagon.
His resignation is effective immediately, Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell announced in a social media post on Wednesday.
Navy Undersecretary Hung Cao will serve as acting secretary, Parnell added.
Phelan is the latest senior military official to leave the administration in recent months. His departure comes amid the ongoing US-Israel conflict with Iran and the continued US blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, the BBC reported.
“On behalf of the Secretary of Defense and Deputy Secretary of Defense, we are grateful to Secretary Phelan for his service to the Department and the United States Navy,” Parnell wrote. “We wish him well in his future endeavors.”
The Navy did not provide a reason for his departure.
The resignation comes only weeks after US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth asked Army Chief of Staff Randy George to step down. Two other Army officials, Gen. David Hodne and Maj. Gen. William Green, have also recently been removed from their posts.
Since taking office at the Pentagon, Hegseth has dismissed more than a dozen senior military officers, including the chief of naval operations and the Air Force’s vice chief of staff.
The secretary of the Navy’s role is largely administrative, involving policy formulation, recruitment, training, equipping the Navy, and overseeing budgeting, logistics, ship construction, and facility repairs.
Phelan, a civilian with no prior military service, was sworn in as Secretary of the Navy in March 2025 after being nominated by President Donald Trump in 2024. The businessman was also a major donor to Trump’s campaign.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said the president is “satisfied” with the ongoing US naval blockade of Iranian ports and believes Iran is in a weakened position.
Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, Iran’s chief negotiator in talks with the US, said on Wednesday that reopening the Strait of Hormuz was “not possible” because of what he described as “blatant violations of the ceasefire” by the US and Israel.
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