John Phelan sat in the lobby of the West Wing for more than an hour Wednesday night, waiting to see if his old friend and neighbor, President Trump, would keep his job. He will leave disappointed.
That afternoon, Navy Secretary Phelan received a call from his boss, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, asking him to resign. Phelan spent much of Wednesday on Capitol Hill meeting with lawmakers to discuss Navy shipbuilding and Pentagon budget request.
A few miles away at the White House, another party was taking place that would decide his fate, according to U.S. officials. Hegseth and his deputy, Stephen Feinberg, made the argument to Trump that Phelan did not move quickly enough on Trump. Shipbuilding prioritiesThe “Golden Fleet”, in particular, relied increasingly on the use of steam. They believe the Navy needs new leadership.
Phelan made a series of calls, including to the president’s executive assistant, saying he needed to speak with Trump. Phelan then headed to the White House. Phelan asked to keep his job when the president was free Wednesday night, but the commander-in-chief supported Hegseth’s decision, according to a senior administration official.
The incident showed that Hegseth has retained Trump’s support despite recent high-level turnover at the Pentagon. In signing off on the decision to fire Phelan, the president sided with Hegers, a personal friend and neighbor who raised millions of dollars for his campaign. Administration officials said Trump directed the Pentagon chief to address Phelan’s firing.
Speaking at the White House on Thursday, Trump praised his friend but said, “He’s a tough guy and he had some conflicts with some other people, mostly around building and buying their ships. I was very active in new shipbuilding, but somehow he just didn’t get along with them.”
The ouster shocked Phelan and his most senior aides, who learned of the news from an official. social media posts Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell announced the decision on Wednesday, according to U.S. officials. Parnell said in the same post that Deputy Secretary of the Navy Cao Hong will serve as acting secretary.
Heggs Quick reorganization Actions by some top leaders at the Pentagon in recent weeks have raised concerns at a volatile moment as the United States imposes a naval blockade of Iranian ports, according to U.S. officials. Although the secretary of the Navy was not in the chain of command, Phelan played an important role in the Department of Defense’s largest budget request in history.
Some officials in the West Wing were frustrated by Hegseth’s firing, especially amid the Navy’s complex blockade of Iranian ports, according to people familiar with the situation.
Trump’s support for the sudden firing has many questioning who might be next on Hegseth’s chopping block. The Pentagon secretary fired Army Chief of Staff Gen. Randy George earlier this month and clashed with Army Secretary Dan Driscoll, a close ally of Vice President Vance. Meanwhile, Trump’s Cabinet is undergoing personnel changes, losing a labor secretary, an attorney general and an attorney general. secretary of homeland security in a very short period of time.
Phelan said in a statement that serving as Navy secretary has been “the honor of a lifetime.”
He added: “Leadership at this level is not without its challenges. Caution, stock competition and internal friction can slow decision-making. But our mission requires clarity, urgency and results – and I have never lost sight of that.”
Phelan asked to speak directly to Trump before accepting the decision, according to people familiar with the matter, suggesting one of the reasons he was fired in the first place: a refusal to acknowledge the chain of command. These people said this was unacceptable to the president. The senior administration official said the White House had clashed with Phelan over various issues, including the president’s desired list of Medal of Honor recipients.
Before Phelan was fired, his relationship with Hegseth and Feinberg lasted for several months, including Phelan’s Close ties to Trumpthe Wall Street Journal previously reported. The two Pentagon leaders were particularly irritated when Phelan bypassed Hegseth and presented the idea of ​​a modern battleship directly to the president.
In recent months, Hegers and Feinberg have been working to sideline Phelan, stripping away authority that normally belongs to the Navy secretary, according to people familiar with the matter. Last year, Feinberg created the position of submarine acquisition czar, who reports directly to him. People familiar with the matter said the department normally falls within the Navy. Feinberg typically did not invite Phelan to his frequent meetings with shipbuilding executives, according to a person familiar with the matter.
Unlike Phelan, Trump did not often explicitly thank other senior leaders Hegseth fired, a sign of Phelan’s close relationship with the president. Phelan’s Florida home is across the street from Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club, where the two often dined together. Phelan told lawmakers last year that he exchanged text messages with the president in the middle of the night about the shipbuilding.
Write to Laura Seligman: lara.seligman@wsj.comJosh Dawsey joshua dawsey@WSJ.comAlexander Ward alex.ward@wsj.com with Natalie Andrews at natalie.andrews@wsj.com
