Hung Cao said the military should be filled with ‘alpha males and alpha females.’ Now he’s Trump’s acting Navy secretary | CNN Politics

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 Phelan’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 civili