New Delhi: In yet another dismissal amid the fragile truce in the US-Iran war, president Donald Trump has fired his Secretary of Navy John Phelan. Phelan, a billionaire who was considered close to Trump, is the first administration-picked service secretary to be fired since Trump came back into office last year.
Phelan’s departure has also been linked by officials to his strained relationships with key Pentagon figures, including deputy defense secretary Steve Feinberg and Hung Cao, who has been named acting Navy secretary.
This is the third dismissal of a high-ranking official amid a series of extraordinary wartime purges in the Pentagon. On 3 April, General Randy George was dismissed as the chief of army staff, without a public explanation, and over a phone call.
At the centre of the dispute was Defense secretary Pete Hegseth’s decision to block the promotion of four Army officers to one-star general which included two Black officers and two women as part of a larger promotion list dominated by white men.
Hegseth had reportedly pressed both Gen. George and Army Secretary Dan Driscoll for months to remove the officers from the list. Both resisted, citing their strong service records.
Hegseth also removed Gen. David M. Hodne as the head of the Army’s Transformation and Training Command, and Maj. Gen. William Green Jr, the Army’s top chaplain.
Phelan was told he would leave his post “effective immediately”, according to a brief Pentagon statement that provided no reason for his departure. According to Reuters which first reported the dismissal, officials familiar with the matter said Phelan had clashed with senior leaders and was viewed as slow to implement shipbuilding reforms seen as central to the administration’s military strategy.
These changes come as Washington navigates a fragile ceasefire with Iran while increasing its military presence in West Asia. Naval forces have played a central role, enforcing a blockade intended to pressure Tehran into negotiations on terms set by the Trump administration.
The administration has placed particular emphasis on expanding naval power. Citing competition with China’s vastly larger shipbuilding capacity, Trump has proposed a $1.5 trillion defense budget for 2027, including more than $65 billion for new warships under what officials have called the “Golden Fleet” initiative, one of the most ambitious naval expansions in decades.
His removal adds to a series of high-level dismissals overseen by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth amid controversial changes across the armed forces.
The purge has extended beyond the Pentagon.
Joe Kent, the head of the National Counterterrorism Center, resigned in protest on 17 March, stating that he could not support the administration’s war with Iran and claimed that Tehran posed no imminent threat to the United States.
“This echo chamber was used to deceive you into believing that Iran posed an imminent threat to the United States, and that should you strike now, there was a clear path to a swift victory.
“This was a lie and is the same tactic the Israelis used to draw us into the disastrous Iraq war that cost our nation the lives of thousands of our best men and women. We cannot make this mistake again,” he had written in an official statement.
(Edited by Ajeet Tiwari)
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