Trump taps Hung Cao for Navy secretary amid Pentagon turmoil

WASHINGTON – US President Donald Trump is nominating acting Navy Secretary Hung Cao for the position on a permanent basis, looking to fill a vacancy in the military’s top leadership at a time when the Iran war has prompted concerns over the impact on personnel and readiness.Trump announced his decision on Sept 1 on social media, urging the US Senate to confirm Cao quickly. The American military has experienced unprecedented turmoil within its leadership, including a number of resignations and firings under Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth. The previous Navy secretary, John Phelan, was fired earlier in 2026 after ruin-ins with top leaders at the Pentagon, including Hegseth, over Trump’s push to build a new “Golden Fleet.”And on Aug 31, Army Secretary Dan Driscoll submitted his resignation to the president after repeated clashes with Hegseth.The Cao nomination comes as Trump has struggled to find an exit strategy in the US war on Iran, with the conflict having passed the six-month mark and intensifying this week after a lull.The Navy has been carrying out a blockade of Iranian ports as the two nations jockey for control of the Strait of Hormuz, the critical waterway for energy supplies that has been largely shuttered since the war’s start.The extended conflict, which Trump at the outset said would last just a few weeks, has raised concerns about the effect on US service members, particularly those with extended deployments. The USS Abraham Lincoln has been a particular flashpoint, with families of sailors aboard the warship raising concerns about their conditions amid reports of food shortages and water contamination.Some relatives had said the situation was so dire that sailors attempted to jump ship. The president in August downplayed those concerns, insisting that the deployments had not gone on long enough.Cao at the time had said the ship would return to the US as part of a planned rotation and acknowledged disruptions for the crew, including a “small number of mental health cases.”The aircraft carrier has been slated to make a stop in Thailand.A former Navy officer, Cao graduated from the US Naval Academy and served multiple deployments, including to Iraq, Afghanistan and Somalia, according to his biography on the Navy’s website. BLOOMBERG