- President Donald Trump has nominated decorated former naval officer Hung Cao to be his secretary of the Navy.
- Cao was a child refugee from Vietnam who ascended the American naval ranks while in uniform.
- If confirmed, Cao would assume his post at a turbulent moment defined by war and political division.
When Hung Cao was 4 years old, he and his family fled their native Vietnam during the 1975 fall of Saigon, initially arriving in the American territory of Guam before ultimately making their home in the U.S. mainland.
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Now, just over a half-century later, Cao is poised to become the civilian leader and CEO of the world’s most powerful navy. Earlier this week, President Donald Trump announced Cao’s nomination to become the next secretary of the Navy.
The retired combat veteran and Naval special operations officer has been serving as the Navy’s acting secretary since former Navy Secretary John Phelan was fired in April.
In a Truth Social post earlier this week, Trump wrote that the Senate needs to “confirm this warfighter — ASAP.”
“We need patriots like Hung leading our Navy and Marine Corps, and 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.”
Cao called Trump’s nomination “the honor of a lifetime” to lead the Navy and Marine Corps’ “great warriors.”
“I’m grateful for your leadership and support as we continue to get after shipbuilding and ensure the defense of the homeland,” Cao wrote on his X account.
@POTUS Thank you, Mr. President. It’s an honor of a lifetime to lead the great warriors of the Navy and Marine Corps team. I’m grateful for your leadership and support as we continue to get after shipbuilding and ensure the defense of the homeland. pic.twitter.com/SUqz6q7OF0
— Acting Secretary of the Navy Hung Cao (@SECNAV) September 1, 2026
The Senate must confirm Cao’s nomination to the Department of the Navy post, which oversees both the U.S. Navy and the U.S. Marine Corps as two separate, coordinated branches of the Armed Forces.
Rough waters across the sea service
Cao’s nomination arrives at a tumultuous moment for both the Navy and the entire military service community.
Most significantly, the Iran war has been going on for over six months. Following a monthslong ceasefire, U.S. forces again carried out airstrikes in recent days, hitting Iranian targets near the Strait of Hormuz. In response, Tehran attacked American bases across the Middle East.
And even as Cao prepares for his Senate confirmation hearing or vote, he remains a key leader in a conflict with little sign of ending soon.
Following the latest round of combat, Trump warned of a U.S. strike “waiting in the wings” — adding “there will be very little left” of Iran, NBC News reported.
The president also posted on Truth Social that he’s not interested in negotiations with Iran.
“I couldn’t care less if they sign a worthless, to them, agreement. I like our position now much better, with almost total control of the Hormuz Strait, and their economy totally collapsing. They are just playing out the inevitable. When are the Iranian people going to rise up and fight?” he wrote.
Iran’s armed forces general staff pledged it would “impose a heavy cost on the American enemy.”
Meanwhile, if confirmed, Cao will be assuming the Navy’s top civilian post amid rough waters inside the Pentagon.
Strained relations with top Defense Department leaders reportedly prompted Phelan’s removal. And just this week, Cao’s counterpart — U.S. Army Secretary Dan Driscoll — resigned.
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Driscoll is a friend of Vice President JD Vance and has good relationships with both Republicans and Democrats in Congress. But tensions with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth have been widely reported, and some of Driscoll’s allies in the Army were ousted this year by Trump’s Pentagon chief, according to The Associated Press.
Driscoll reportedly spoke with Trump on the current state of the Army before he submitted his resignation this week.
Any concerns were absent from Driscoll’s post on X late Tuesday night, which was his first public statement since the White House confirmed his departure Monday. Driscoll said it has been “the honor of a lifetime” to serve as Army secretary under Trump and Hegseth, The Associated Press reported.
And last month, reports of stark challenges aboard the long-deployed USS Abraham Lincoln prompted more than a dozen Democratic senators to demand answers from the Pentagon.
Hegseth said reports of poor conditions aboard the Lincoln — which has since been pulled from the Middle East — were “completely misrepresented.”
Cao also responded to the alarming Lincoln reports, posting in his X account that the media was portraying “our warriors” as victims.
“Not only is this dishonest, but it takes away the focus on the enemy and the threat it poses against our nation, people and way of life.”
The USS Lincoln’s mission, he added, was extended because the mission demanded it.
“One of the hardest aspects about warfighting beyond knowingly placing our service members in harm’s way is that even with the best planning and communication, change and uncertainty will always be in play.
“Our success depends on how we adapt.”
If confirmed, Cao will also be tasked with answering Trump’s call for an expanded — and costly — “Golden Fleet” of warships. The president’s proposed 2027 military budget includes $65.8 billion for constructing new ships for the American Navy fleet.
From war refugee to decorated American warfighter
Given the political temperature in Washington, D.C., Cao’s confirmation is sure to be divisive.
His supporters will surely lean into the nominee’s “Only in America” story of a refugee child from war-torn Southeast Asia who ascended through the Navy’s uniformed ranks to become the branch’s top civilian chief.
After immigrating to the United States in 1975, Cao and his family moved to West Africa while his father was working as a U.S. government agricultural specialist.
Cao eventually returned to the United States and in 1989 enlisted in the Navy as a seaman recruit. His naval performance earned him an appointment at the United States Naval Academy and his subsequent commission in 1996 as a special operations officer.
He would serve as a Navy diver and an explosive ordnance disposal officer, leading sailors in multiple deployments to Iraq, Afghanistan and Somalia. He retired from active duty in 2021 as a Navy captain, according to his Navy biography.
Cao holds a bachelor’s degree in ocean engineering, a master’s degree in applied physics and was a fellow with MIT Seminar XXI and Harvard Kennedy School.
He is fluent in English, French and Vietnamese. Cao and his wife April have five children.