Phelan was fired because he couldn't deliver on Trump's shipbuilding agenda and clashed with Pentagon leadership at every turn. Combining arrogance with an inability to execute the president's priorities is a recipe for failure, and the Navy can't afford that kind of dysfunction. Hung Cao — a Naval Academy grad with 25 years of service — is exactly the kind of leader the Navy needs right now.
Phelan was a hedge fund manager with zero military experience running one of the most operationally complex branches of the armed forces — that mismatch was always going to be a problem. Being a major donor and art collector doesn't translate into understanding the Navy or Marine Corps. Hung Cao is a retired Navy veteran who actually knows the institution he's now leading.
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