President Donald Trump announced Tuesday he is nominating acting Navy Secretary Hung Cao for the permanent position, giving the combat veteran the nod as concerns grow that sailors are being stretched to the limit during the Iran war.
Cao has filled the acting role since John Phelan departed unexpectedly without explanation in late April. Unlike Phelan, who lacked military service or a civilian leadership role in the force, Cao spent 25 years in the Navy as a special operations officer, serving alongside SEAL teams and special forces in Iraq and Afghanistan.
In 1999, Cao led the team that recovered the bodies of John F. Kennedy Jr, his wife Carolyn Bessette, and sister-in-law Lauren Bessette after their plane crashed close to Martha’s Vineyard.
Promoting his selection online, Trump said he was "pleased to nominate a true WARRIOR," while prodding the Senate "to confirm this Warfighter, ASAP." Cao called the posting the "honor of a lifetime to lead the great warriors of the Navy and Marine Corps team."
The nomination comes as critics, including congressional Democrats, warn the administration is overtaxing the Navy. Supporting the war effort, the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln spent a record length of continuous time at sea during a nine-month deployment. Reports of worsening crew mental health and shortages of essential supplies like food and hygiene items prompted Sens. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut and Ruben Gallego of Arizona to demand accountability from the Pentagon.
Before his current post, Cao served as Navy undersecretary and advocated for returning service members who resisted the Biden-era COVID-19 vaccine mandate. A Trump loyalist, Cao also brushed off concerns after the Blue Angels demonstration squadron flew so low over a crowded Florida beach in July that chairs and tents were blown over.
Cao failed to win a Senate seat held by Democrat Tim Kaine in 2024 and a House seat in Virginia in 2022, despite Trump’s endorsement.
Cao’s biography includes fleeing Vietnam with his family as a child in the 1970s. In a 2024 campaign video, he compares Vietnam’s communist regime during the Cold War to today’s Biden Administration.
“We are losing our country,” Cao says in the ad, which blames Biden for the criminal cases against Trump and shows footage of border crossings and store lootings. “You know it. But you also know that you can’t say it. We’re forced to say that wrong is right. We’re forced to lie.”
“If you want the nice guy up there, I’m not your guy,” Cao told The Associated Press at the time. “If you want somebody to go in and kick some tail, I’m your guy that’s going to get this done.”
During a debate against Kaine, Cao criticized what he believed were DEI efforts by the Biden administration in military.
“When you’re using a drag queen to recruit for the Navy, that’s not the people we want,” Cao said. “What we need is alpha males and alpha females who are going to rip out their own guts, eat them and ask for seconds. Those are the young men and women that are going to win wars.”
The choice comes during broader upheaval across top U.S. military ranks, marked by Army Secretary Dan Driscoll resigning this week following reported tension with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.
