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

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 Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps seized two container ships in the strait of Hormuz, claiming maritime violations and transferring them to Iranian shores.