As undersecretary of the Navy, Hung Cao, a retired Navy captain and former Republican Senate candidate in Virginia, was imagined to have a broad portfolio because the service’s No. 2 civilian, which included personnel points and safeguarding the Navy’s “warfighter ethos.”
However in actuality, Cao was typically reduce out of decision-making by his boss, Navy Secretary John Phelan, one supply conversant in the state of affairs instructed CNN, who stated Phelan put Cao “in a field”
Cao was remoted from Navy resolution making and wasn’t allowed to signify Phelan in official conferences that Phelan didn’t attend, one thing a typical undersecretary would do, the supply stated.
That each one modified following Pehlan’s sudden ouster as Navy secretary by President Donald Trump and Protection Secretary Pete Hegseth this week. Cao is now within the job on an appearing foundation. He discovered about his promotion from the Pentagon entrance workplace, which referred to as him in and stated, “Okay, you’re it — we made a change,” in accordance with the supply.
“He’s shortly coming up to the mark on all of the issues he wasn’t allowed to be concerned in,” the supply added.
A embellished particular operations officer, Cao takes over because the Navy’s prime civilian at a time when the service is enjoying a vital function in stopping Iranian ships from traversing the Strait of Hormuz. Because the 2024 Republican nominee towards Virginia Democratic Sen. Tim Kaine, Cao championed Trump and Hegseth’s assaults on social points and opposition to range, fairness and inclusion initiatives.
Cao immigrated to the US as a baby after his household fled Vietnam through the Vietnam Conflict.
After retiring from the Navy in 2021, he ran for Congress as a Republican in 2022 and challenged Kaine in 2024, the place he had a penchant for making controversial statements.
“Once you’re utilizing a drag queen to recruit for the Navy, that’s not the individuals we wish,” Cao stated at a 2024 debate with Kaine in response to a query about army recruiting. “What we want is alpha males and alpha females who’re going to tear out their very own guts, eat ’em and ask for seconds. These are younger women and men which are going to win wars.”
Appearing Navy Secretary and former Beneath Secretary of the Navy Hung Cao attends a press briefing on the Pentagon in Washington, DC, on Friday. – Annabelle Gordon/AFP/Getty Photographs
In a press release after his appointment as appearing secretary, Cao stated that he would give attention to advancing the Navy’s shipbuilding priorities — the very challenge that contributed to Phelan’s firing.
“I stay absolutely dedicated to conducting the core mission of the Division of the Navy as a premier warfighting group and offering unwavering assist to our warriors downrange,” Cao stated.
Phelan, a businessman and good friend of Trump’s who fundraised for his marketing campaign, was eliminated as Navy secretary following tensions with Hegseth that had stretched on for months. Hegseth believed Phelan was transferring too slowly on implementing shipbuilding reforms and was additionally irked by Phelan’s direct communication with Trump, which Hegseth seen as an try and bypass him, CNN beforehand reported.
It’s unclear whether or not Cao will probably be nominated to take over as Navy secretary completely.
In a press release to CNN, Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell stated Cao “brings battle-tested management to the Navy’s highest workplace” and that he “embodies the relentless grit and America First imaginative and prescient required to keep up America’s maritime superiority.”
After immigrating to the US in 1975, Cao and his household then moved to West Africa, the place his father served as a USAID agricultural specialist, in accordance with his Navy biography. Cao returned to Virginia when he was 12.
He then enlisted within the Navy in 1989 and have become an officer after graduating from the US Naval Academy in 1996. Over a three-decade profession Cao labored as a Navy diver and explosive ordnance disposal officer. His deployments included Iraq, Afghanistan and Somalia. He additionally had a stint on the Pentagon engaged on budgets and acquisitions.
Cao and Hegseth knew one another earlier than they each joined the Trump administration, and Cao accompanied Hegseth on a visit to Vietnam in November.
At a 2024 rally in Virginia simply days earlier than the November election, Trump praised the Virginia Senate candidate and referred to as him as much as be part of him on stage.
“We’re happy to be joined by a beautiful man, and with this identify I actually imagine he’s gonna win for the senate — Hung Cao,” Trump stated. Trump gained the White Home however misplaced Virginia, and Kaine defeated Cao within the Senate race 54% to 45%.
In his Senate race, Cao typically criticized the Biden administration’s DEI insurance policies, blaming them for the army’s recruiting points.
“This administration has a rising obsession with DEI. It’s no marvel we now have a army recruiting downside in our nation and that may proceed underneath Harris/Walz,” Cao wrote on X in September 2024.
Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump speaks alongside Republican candidate for U.S. Senate in Virginia Hung Cao on the Truong Tien Restaurant within the Eden Middle on August 26, 2024 in Falls Church, Virginia. – Anna Moneymaker/Getty Photographs
Cao was confirmed as Navy undersecretary on October 1. All Democrats voted towards Cao nomination and all Republicans supported him, apart from Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski, who voted no.
That very same month, Phelan’s chief of workers was fired by Hegseth, partially over efforts to undermine the Navy undersecretary’s workplace earlier than Cao arrived on the job, Politico reported final fall.
As undersecretary, Cao was tapped to be the senior protection official for Guam, the place Cao’s household first arrived a long time earlier as Vietnamese refugees. He additionally headed up recruitment and personnel coverage for the Navy, together with implementing Trump’s govt order to reinstate service members who had been discharged from the army over its Covid-19 vaccine mandate in 2021.
In January, Cao wrote a letter apologizing to sailors who had been kicked out of the army because of the mandate.
“To the sailors and Marines who had been wrongfully discharged throughout Covid, we failed you. We’ll by no means enable this to occur once more. Not on my watch,” Cao stated in a video the place he signed the apology letter. “You might be warriors of conscience, and we want individuals such as you again within the drive.”
The supply conversant in the state of affairs stated that Cao has instructed Pentagon officers he gained’t attempt to go round Trump or Hegseth. “He’s going to offer his suggestions inside the constructing,” the supply stated, “and he’ll loyally assist no matter resolution the president makes.”
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