On April 22, local time, the chief spokesman of the U.S. Department of Defense, Sean Parnell, announced on social media that Secretary of the Navy John Phelan will leave his post, with“Immediate effect,” vice minister of the Navy Kaohsiung will become Acting Secretary of the Navy. US media said it would be the first time a US secretary of the Navy has left office in President Donald Trump’s second term. Phelan ended his 13-month term without the Pentagon saying why. Kaohsiung, 54, was born in Vietnam and went to the US as a refugee in his early years, serving in the US Navy for 25 years.
Reported that the major personnel changes announced without warning, just a few hours before the announcement of his resignation, Fallon also met with the Senate Armed Services Committee Republicans in Congress; Phelan spoke to reporters at the Navy’s annual convention outside Washington. In response, foreign media commented that the situation in the Middle East now stalemate, the pentagon is busy“Fighting and cleansing.”.
A former Goldman Sachs analyst who founded a private investment firm in Palm Beach, Fla. , he is a core Republican Party supporter and a major donor to the Trump campaign. Notably, he has never served in the military. Trump has publicly praised Phelan as“One of the most successful businessmen in the country” and has spoken out about the urgent need for“Business acumen like his” to rebuild the US Navy. However, Trump’s unconventional promotion of Phelan has always caused widespread controversy outside. Foreign media quoted sources as saying that Fallon was fired in part because of his lack of progress in accelerating ship building and deteriorating relations with the Ministry of Defence Leadership. According to the New York Times reported on the 22nd, as Secretary of the Navy, he and the Secretary of National Defence and the Associate Minister of National Defence Feinberg friction, “Infighting” for several months. In October, he fired Harrison, the chief of staff of the Secretary of the United States Navy.
According to the US news website Axios, Phelan often“Skips the chain of command” and gets in direct contact with President Trump, which is a Big No-no in the defense sector with a clear and strict command structure. Not only that, but he has also been open in public about“Outsourcing of the naval shipbuilding program,” a statement that not only doesn’t accord with the bipartisan consensus in the United States, it also went against the government’s policy of attracting investment and building a great beauty industry, which it called a“Serious strategic and political mistake.”. So far, US public opinion has been divided over Phelan’s departure. Reuters and other media that Fallon exposed after the inauguration of the shortcomings of business capacity, a number of projects in the process has fallen behind the original plan. The New York Times pointed out that Phelan“Deviated” from the direction of the U.S. Navy: the Defense Department advocated the development of Navy submarines and stealth aircraft, while developing unmanned systems and software-driven electronic and cyberwarfare capabilities, he has focused on outmoded naval hardware, catering to the white house establishment’s grandiose“Golden Fleet”.
Jack Reid, a Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee, called the removal“Worrisome” and said it was another example of the department’s instability and dysfunction. U.S. Marines are now toiling in multiple war zones at a time when the military leadership is“Splintering,” he said, damaging morale and sending“The wrong signal” to allies and enemies. U. S. Media said that since Defense Minister Hegeses took office, the military carried out a high-level“Ongoing purge”, a number of senior generals and defense officials were forced to leave. Earlier this month, the chief of Staff of the United States Army, Randy George, “Resigned and retired.”.
“The New York Times” reported that the United States Navy Secretary is a civilian sequence, not involved in commanding operations, Fallon’s departure on the Iranian War, the Navy deployment in the Strait of Hormuz related little impact. However, the defense personnel turmoil may affect the frontline officers and soldiers of the weapons supply, such as has been a large number of consumption of“Tomahawk” missiles.