Why Trump’s new choice for Navy secretary shouldn’t expect a smooth confirmation process
One of the oddities of Donald Trump's personnel choices in his second term is how often he has chosen failed GOP candidates for important positions . Indeed, the White House seems to be a jobs program for Republicans who have been rejected by voters, hiring so many failed candidates that Roll Call last year said the president had created a "stable of losers."
The list is still growing. Hung Cao, for example, is known to campaign watchers as a Virginia Republican who ran a failed congressional campaign in 2022, losing to then-Democratic Rep. Jennifer Wexton by nearly 7 points, followed by a failed Senate campaign in 2024, losing to Democratic Sen. Tim Kaine by nearly 9 points.
Just months after Cao's defeat, Trump tapped him to serve as under secretary of the Navy, and he was narrowly confirmed last fall. In April the president named him acting Navy secretary after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth fired John Phelan , becoming the 10th person to serve in the position across both of Trump's terms.
This week, the White House decided to try to remove the word "acting" from his title. MS NOW reported :
President Donald Trump announced Tuesday that he is nominating Hung Cao to serve as secretary of the Navy.
"I am pleased to nominate a true WARRIOR, Hung Cao, to become the next Secretary of the Navy," Trump wrote on Truth Social, urging the Senate to confirm Cao "ASAP."
There's no great mystery as to why the White House thinks highly of Cao: He's not just a failed Republican congressional candidate, he's also an enthusiastic proponent of "alpha" troops who has publicly condemned "cross-dressers" and "leaf eaters" in the armed forces.
Cao, in other words, tends to read from Hegseth's script.
His record, however, is not without controversy. During his 2024 candidacy, for example, USA Today reported that the Republican, a decorated Navy veteran, "made repeated references to becoming disabled after he was 'blown up' in combat," although his military record did not support those claims.
The article added that Cao's Navy service record "does not show a Purple Heart award, the commendation given to troops who have suffered wounds from 'direct or indirect result of enemy action' that required medical attention. Nor does his record indicate that he received the Navy's Combat Action Ribbon, which requires that a sailor 'must have rendered satisfactory performance under enemy fire while actively participating in ground or surface combat engagement.'"
Pressed at the time for an explanation, Cao declined to answer specific questions about his military service.
Complicating matters, shortly after launching his Senate campaign, Cao also expressed concerns about, of all things, witchcraft.
During one 2023 interview, Cao said witches had "taken over" a California city, and he wanted to prevent similar problems in Virginia.
"We can't let it turn like this," he said during an interview with a Christian pastor. "There's a place in Monterey, California, called Lovers Point. The original name was Lovers of Christ Point, but now it's become — they took out the 'Christ,' it's Lovers Point, and it's really — Monterey is a very dark place now, a lot of witchcraft and the Wiccan community has really taken over. We can't let that happen to Virginia."
As for his tenure as acting secretary, Cao has overseen the Navy during the controversy surrounding conditions aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln, which included a combative face-to-face confrontation with sailors' families in early August.
The nomination will require Senate confirmation, and Cao's hearings are bound to be interesting. Watch this space.
This post updates our related earlier coverage .
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