Hung Cao said the military should be filled with ‘alpha males and alpha females.’ Now he’s Trump’s acting Navy secretary
By Jeremy Herb, Haley Britzky, CNN
(CNN) — As undersecretary of the Navy, Hung Cao, a retired Navy captain and former Republican Senate candidate in Virginia, was supposed to have a broad portfolio as the service’s No. 2 civilian, which included personnel issues and safeguarding the Navy’s “warfighter ethos.”
But in reality, Cao was often cut out of decision-making by his boss, Navy Secretary John Phelan, one source familiar with the situation told CNN, who said Phelan put Cao “in a box”
Cao was isolated from Navy decision making and wasn’t allowed to represent Phelan in official meetings that Phelan didn’t attend, something a typical undersecretary would do, the source said.
That all changed following Pehlan’s sudden ouster as Navy secretary by President Donald Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth this week. Cao is now in the job on an acting basis. He learned about his promotion from the Pentagon front office, which called him in and said, “Ok, you’re it — we made a change,” according to the source.
“He’s quickly coming up to speed on all the things he wasn’t allowed to be involved in,” the source added.
A decorated special operations officer, Cao takes over as the Navy’s top civilian at a time when the service is playing a critical role in stopping Iranian ships from traversing the Strait of Hormuz. As the 2024 Republican nominee against Virginia Democratic Sen. Tim Kaine, Cao championed Trump and Hegseth’s attacks on social issues and opposition to diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives.
Cao immigrated to the US as a child after his family fled Vietnam during the Vietnam War.
After retiring from the Navy in 2021, he ran for Congress as a Republican in 2022 and challenged Kaine in 2024, where he had a penchant for making controversial statements.
“When you’re using a drag queen to recruit for the Navy, that’s not the people we want,” Cao said at a 2024 debate with Kaine in response to a question about military recruiting. “What we need is alpha males and alpha females who are going to rip out their own guts, eat ’em and ask for seconds. Those are young men and women that are going to win wars.”
In a statement after his appointment as acting secretary, Cao said that he would focus on advancing the Navy’s shipbuilding priorities — the very issue that contributed to Phelan’s firing.
“I remain fully committed to accomplishing the core mission of the Department of the Navy as a premier warfighting organization and providing unwavering support to our warriors downrange,” Cao said.
Phelan, a businessman and friend of Trump’s who fundraised for his campaign, was removed as Navy secretary following tensions with Hegseth that had stretched on for months. Hegseth believed Phelan was moving too slowly on implementing shipbuilding reforms and was also irked by Phelan’s direct communication with Trump, which Hegseth viewed as an attempt to bypass him, CNN previously reported.
It’s unclear whether Cao will be nominated to take over as Navy secretary permanently.
In a statement to CNN, Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said Cao “brings battle-tested leadership to the Navy’s highest office” and that he “embodies the relentless grit and America First vision required to maintain America’s maritime superiority.”
After immigrating to the US in 1975, Cao and his family then moved to West Africa, where his father served as a USAID agricultural specialist, according to his Navy biography. Cao returned to Virginia when he was 12.
He then enlisted in the Navy in 1989 and became an officer after graduating from the US Naval Academy in 1996. Over a three-decade career Cao worked as a Navy diver and explosive ordnance disposal officer. His deployments included Iraq, Afghanistan and Somalia. He also had a stint at the Pentagon working on budgets and acquisitions.
Cao and Hegseth knew each other before they both joined the Trump administration, and Cao accompanied Hegseth on a trip to Vietnam in November.
At a 2024 rally in Virginia just days before the November election, Trump praised the Virginia Senate candidate and called him up to join him on stage.
“We’re pleased to be joined by a wonderful guy, and with this name I really believe he’s gonna win for the senate — Hung Cao,” Trump said. Trump won the White House but lost Virginia, and Kaine defeated Cao in the Senate race 54% to 45%.
In his Senate race, Cao often criticized the Biden administration’s DEI policies, blaming them for the military’s recruiting issues.
“This administration has a growing obsession with DEI. It’s no wonder we have a military recruiting problem in our country and that will continue under Harris/Walz,” Cao wrote on X in September 2024.
Cao was confirmed as Navy undersecretary on October 1. All Democrats voted against Cao nomination and all Republicans supported him, except for Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski, who voted no.
That same month, Phelan’s chief of staff was fired by Hegseth, in part over efforts to undermine the Navy undersecretary’s office before Cao arrived on the job, Politico reported last fall.
As undersecretary, Cao was tapped to be the senior defense official for Guam, where Cao’s family first arrived decades earlier as Vietnamese refugees. He also headed up recruitment and personnel policy for the Navy, including implementing Trump’s executive order to reinstate service members who were discharged from the military over its Covid-19 vaccine mandate in 2021.
In January, Cao wrote a letter apologizing to sailors who were kicked out of the military as a result of the mandate.
“To the sailors and Marines who were wrongfully discharged during Covid, we failed you. We will never allow this to happen again. Not on my watch,” Cao said in a video where he signed the apology letter. “You are warriors of conscience, and we need people like you back in the force.”
The source familiar with the situation said that Cao has told Pentagon officials he won’t try to go around Trump or Hegseth. “He is going to give his feedback within the building,” the source said, “and he will loyally support whatever decision the president makes.”
The-CNN-Wire
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