Donald Trump nominates John Phelan for Secretary of the Navy
Donald Trump picked John Phelan for Secretary of the Navy. Trump described Phelan as someone who would be a tremendous force for the naval service and someone who would help advance Trump’s America First vision. However, the authors of a Military.com article take issue with the fact that Phelan does not have military experience. They sighted another individual who filled the same role who also lacked military experience. The authors pointed to this latter individual’s work with the Pentagon and with top defense contractors as if they were “mitigating” factors.
From Military.com:
While it is not unusual for service secretaries to have been major fundraisers or donors prior to assuming their duties, what is unusual about Phelan is his lack of any military experience.
The last Navy secretary to have no connection to the military was Donald Winter, who served in the George W. Bush administration from 2006 to 2009. However, Winter’s resume included work for the Pentagon and top defense contractors. Before being selected for the job, Winter was the head of a branch of Northrop Grumman, one of the top 10 largest defense contractors used by the Pentagon.
“John will be a tremendous force for our naval service members and a steadfast leader in advancing my America First vision,” Trump said in his statement, adding that Phelan “will put the business of the U.S. Navy above all else.”
Trump boasted about Phelan’s work in running a private investment firm for Michael Dell, the founder of the computing giant Dell Technologies and argued that “his record of success speaks for itself.”
In addition to his work in finance, Phelan is a well-known art collector, appearing on ARTnews’ Top 200 collectors list in 2024.
Since the beginning of the modern structure of the Defense Department following World War II, only five of the 28 confirmed Navy secretaries had no military or government service in their past.
Of those five, one secretary — Gordon England — had been a top executive at General Dynamics and Lockheed before being named to the top Navy job. His nomination and service came under Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, who was a proponent of picking people with CEO experience to run the services. However, those choices were controversial at the time, and one of his picks for Army secretary ended up being blocked by the Senate.
Additional Reading:
Toropin, K., & Beynon, S. (2024, November 27). Trump picks big donor with background in finance and little experience with the military for navy secretary. Military.com. Link.
Category: Donald Trump, Navy
With a son on AD stationed in San Diego, I hope this pick is a home run. Ideally, we’d like someone with experience in the military, but experience doesn’t always equate to success. Just look at Trump vs Biden. With Pete Hegseth as SECDEF, I am optimistic about the new SECNAV.
Maybe these individuals can help also….
https://thegatewaypundit.com/2024/11/proactive-veterans-submit-list-18-potential-nominees-serve/
Very sad to see Military.com doing mainstream media level reporting. I guess that is all they teach in journalism school these days. A nice attempt to paint Mr. Phelan as an ignorant, out of touch wealthy elitist. It took me all of five minutes with Google-Fu to find out that Mr. Phelan is a board member of the Fish & Wildlife Foundation of Florida, born and raised in Coral Gables FL (like my step dad), is an accomplished fisherman competing in tournaments, and holds an Angler rating with the Sailfish Club of Florida. None of that is “Navy” experience but it makes the man seem a bit more normal than an Arts & Croissant snob that I get from the Military.com reporters.
Look who is running the Army….