President Trump said on Tuesday that he would nominate Hung Cao, the acting Navy secretary, to serve in the role permanently.
The announcement came amid a purge of leadership at the Pentagon and a stalling war effort against Iran. Mr. Cao, a retired naval officer, has overseen the service amid reports of dire conditions aboard the aircraft carrier Abraham Lincoln, which has endured a marathon deployment of more than nine months at sea, much of it in support of the war against Iran.
“I am pleased to nominate a true WARRIOR, Hung Cao,” Mr. Trump said on social media, adding that “I can think of no one better than him to make sure our Great Navy and Marine Corps remain the FIERCEST and BEST Force the World has ever seen.”
Mr. Cao, whose nomination would require Senate confirmation, came to the United States as a refugee amid the collapse of the U.S.-aligned government in South Vietnam in 1975. He spent more than 30 years in the Navy as a diver and bomb disposal officer, and served as the commander of the Naval Diving and Salvage Training Center in Panama.
He retired from the Navy as a captain in 2021, and ran twice in Virginia, unsuccessfully, for elected office — first for the House in 2022 and then for Senate in 2024. Mr. Trump, convinced that he could flip a Senate seat, stumped for Mr. Cao in the Vietnamese enclaves of Northern Virginia.
“I love his name, Hung Cao,” Mr. Trump said with a gesture of his hands at the Truong Tien restaurant in the Eden Center mall in Falls Church, in August 2024. “That name alone should get you elected, right?”
The last Navy secretary, John Phelan, was fired in April after months of infighting with senior Pentagon leaders and disagreements over how to revive the Navy’s struggling shipbuilding program. Mr. Phelan had championed a major investment in new ships, which the administration calls the “Golden Fleet,” including a $275 billion order of “Trump-class” battleships.
Mr. Phelan was known to have a contentious relationship with Mr. Cao, who is considered more aligned with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, especially on some of the social and cultural battles that have defined Mr. Hegseth’s tenure.
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