The Guardian · US news · Original story
Trump’s navy secretary ousted over dispute about shipbuilding
John Phelan firing caused by poor relationship with Pete Hegseth and slow movement on shipbuilding, sources say
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The Trump administration fired its top naval official on Wednesday in a move unrelated to the ongoing naval blockade of Iran’s strait of Hormuz, but instead over over an internal dispute about shipbuilding.
The Pentagon confirmed that John Phelan, who ran a private investment fund in Florida and was a Donald Trump donor, had been ousted as the navy secretary. His departure – the first of any service secretary in the Trump administration – came in the same week that Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps seized two container ships in the strait of Hormuz, claiming maritime violations and transferring them to Iranian shores.
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Joseph Gedeon and Hugo Lowell in Washington · Thu, Apr 23, 2026, 9:55 AM
US news | The Guardian
John Phelan firing caused by poor relationship with Pete Hegseth and slow movement on shipbuilding, sources say
The Trump administration fired its top naval official on Wednesday in a move unrelated to the ongoing naval blockade of Iran’s strait of Hormuz, but instead over over an internal dispute about shipbuilding.
The Pentagon confirmed that John Phelan, who ran a private investment fund in Florida and was a Donald Trump donor, had been ousted as the navy secretary. His departure – the first of any service secretary in the Trump administration – came in the same week that Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps seized two container ships in the strait of Hormuz, claiming maritime violations and transferring them to Iranian shores.
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