he was jealous of (Phelan's) closeness with Trump. These are the dumbest, most embarrassing, childish nitwits alive

[applegrove]

According to the WSJ, Hegseth abruptly fired the Navy Secretary in the middle of a crucial wartime naval blockade because he was jelly of his closeness with Trump. These are the dumbest, most embarrassing, childish nitwits alive - and they are in charge of the world's most monumental military might.

— Helen Kennedy (@helenkennedy.com) 2026-04-23T00:03:02.297Z

[dalton99a]

1. Trump will fire Hegseth for the Iran clusterfuck

[vapor2]

2. WHEN???

[marble falls]

4. As soon as the fuck stops clustering.

[Celerity]

11. There is an insane amount of clustering to unfuck when we are speaking of DumpCo.

[Norbert]

10. Had Hegseth been a woman, he would have been gone last week.

[marble falls]

12. Or a person of color.

[OAITW r.2.0]

3. Christ, we are living in a clusterfuck. 2 unqualified people running our military and neither

has a clue what their job is.

[Shipwack]

5. I'm just surprised that...

The idiotic battleship idea came from an actual naval officer. Then again, admirals are often idiots My own personal data points are only 4. One was a total idiot surrounded by enablers (Special Projects), and one (5th Fleet) may not have been an idiot, but seemed to be too full of himself.

As for the battleship, this gentleman talks about it with much more knowledge than I have...

[marble falls]

13. Phelan waren't no salt. He was a bidnessman that TACO met on the Lolita Express.

[applegrove]

18. He had no naval experience. Phelan was just a billionaire when

Trump gave him a job.

[Mblaze]

6. That seems a little thin.

If Phelan was close to Trump then why would Trump allow him to be fired?

[HappyLarge]

7. Because Tangerine Idi Amin is a demented narcissistic idiot.

No one who isn’t actually talking to him or, right in front of him or on TV exists in any other context.He probably found out about the firing the same time/way we did. Faux Nooz told him,.

[OAITW r.2.0]

8. Here's the thing, anyone Trump appoints to any position,

Is pre-compromised.

[marble falls]

15. Bingo. TACO will grab anything but the blame.

[AZJonnie]

9. Yeah, I'm not sure I buy it either, unless we soon see Kegsbreath fired and Phelan comes back (nt)

[Mblaze]

16. That would be smart. Probably won't happen.

[marble falls]

14. He lets his people go if he can attach blame for his own fuckups. He'd let Ivanka go to prison if he could ...

... lay off blame on her for something that went south.

[LetMyPeopleVote]

17. Trump's Dreams for a Battleship Led to His Navy Secretary's Ouster (NYT Gift Article)

The Navy secretary, John Phelan, was supposed to deliver the first of the president’s ships by 2028. The timeline was nearly impossible.

Link to tweet

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/23/us/politics/trump-navy-secretary.html?unlocked_article_code=1.dFA.-O4X.f4VsdDqaN8QD&smid=url-share

President Trump wanted one thing, more than anything else, from his secretary of the Navy, John Phelan: a new class of battleships.

“They’ll be the fastest, the biggest and by far — 100 times more powerful than any battleship ever built,” Mr. Trump boasted at a news conference at his Mar-a-Lago estate and resort in Florida a few days before Christmas. Mr. Phelan, a billionaire investor who has a home near the club, stood next to the president as he made the announcement.

Mr. Phelan’s job was to deliver the first of Mr. Trump’s battleships by 2028.

On Wednesday, Mr. Trump fired Mr. Phelan, who had struggled to come up with a plan to deliver the ships on the nearly impossible timeline that Mr. Trump has demanded, senior defense and administration officials said, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive personnel matters.....

Presidents rarely pay close attention to military procurement, but Mr. Trump has spoken repeatedly about his plans for a new “Trump-class” battleship. In a February speech to soldiers at Fort Bragg, N.C., Mr. Trump insisted that he had helped design the new class of ships that bear his name......

In Mr. Trump’s imagination the new warship would be massive, weighing as much as 40,000 tons, and would be packed with new high-tech weapons, like lasers, hypersonic missiles and electric rail guns, most of which are still in development and years from being deployed.

In recent weeks, it had become clear to Mr. Phelan that the Navy and the U.S. shipbuilding industry did not have the ability to deliver on Mr. Trump’s vision. Mr. Phelan recently suggested to Mr. Trump that the Navy might have to rely on European shipyards to deliver the battleships on the ambitious timeline Mr. Trump was demanding, senior military and administration officials said.

Mr. Trump rejected the suggestion.

Battleships are not practical or effective in today's world. trump wanted magical battleships that bore his name and fired Phelan for promising these magical battleships and not delivering.