Senate confirms veteran Hung Cao as new undersecretary of the Navy
The Navy veteran was approved on a 52-45 vote, nearly eight months after being nominated by Donald Trump for the post.
Hung Cao at the 2024 RNC/ Angela Weiss.
The Senate confirmed Hung Cao as undersecretary of the Navy. The 54-year-old veteran was approved nearly eight months after being nominated by Donald Trump for the post. During his confirmation hearing in the upper chamber, he promised to form the "most lethal Marine Corps the world has ever seen."
The vote ended with 52 votes in favor and 45 against. All Republicans went along with the nomination, with the exception of Lisa Murkowski (R-AK). The Alaska senator also voted against other high-profile Trump nominees, for example Kash Patel and Pete Hegseth.
Cao, 54, who was born in Vietnam, graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy, subsequently serving more than 30 years in the Navy. He was deployed to Iraq, Somalia and Afghanistan, reaching the rank of captain. In October 2021, he decided to retire to begin his political career.
As a Republican, he was a candidate for the House of Representatives in 2022 and for the Senate in 2024. Despite failing to win either race, his candidacy against Tim Kaine brought him national attention. After an eye-catching speech at the Republican National Convention of 2024, he managed to shrink margins and win 45% of the vote in the election, four points more than the Republican candidate who ran against Kaine in 2020.
"If confirmed, I will deliver to the combat commanders the most lethal Navy and Marine Corps the world has ever seen. But we have a lot of work to do. Years of neglected mismanagement have resulted in ships that cannot get underway, aircrafts that cannot fly, and submarines that cannot dive because we chose to defer maintenance as a cost cutting tool," Cao said during his confirmation hearing.
"Military bureaucracy in the acquisition process have slowed down the production of not only ships and submarines, but also bombs, missiles, and torpedoes," he added.
Cao will serve under John Phelan, who was confirmed as secretary of the Navy. The founder and chairman of the firm Rugger Management LLC, was a major donor to Trump in 2024.
When the president announced Cao's nomination, he described him as "the embodiment of the American dream." "As a refugee to our great nation, Hung worked tirelessly to make proud the country that gave his family a home. With Hung’s experience both in combat and in the Pentagon, he will get the job done," the president added.
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