Protection Secretary Pete Hesgeth on Friday fired Navy chief of workers Jon Harrison, an unusually highly effective prime aide who had orchestrated a reshuffle of the service’s forms.
The sudden ouster, in response to two protection officers and a former protection official, follows the affirmation this week of Navy Undersecretary Hung Cao.
The Pentagon, in an announcement, confirmed Harrison’s departure. “He’ll now not function Chief of Workers to the Secretary of the Navy,” it stated. “We’re grateful for his service to the Division.”
Harrison declined to remark.
The Navy secretary’s chief of workers has historically been a behind-the-scenes job, the senior aide who retains all the things shifting easily. However Harrison, a Trump administration appointee who joined the service in January, had a uncommon stage of energy.
Harrison and Navy Secretary John Phelan had launched sweeping modifications to the Navy’s coverage and budgeting workplaces and sought to restrict the affect of the undersecretary job.
POLITICO beforehand reported that Phelan and Harrison had reassigned a number of aides who have been supposed to assist Cao navigate the position as soon as he’s confirmed. They’d additionally deliberate to interview all future army assistants for Cao to make sure choices got here from the secretary’s workplace.
Cao is a high-profile Navy veteran and former Republican Senate candidate in Virginia who President Donald Trump nominated for the submit.
The ouster follows months of musical chairs contained in the Pentagon. Hegseth fired a number of prime aides earlier this 12 months and eliminated the chair of the Joint Chiefs, in addition to the uniformed leaders of the Navy, Air Pressure and Coast Guard.
Trump has vowed to revive the shipbuilding trade. However the service’s largest applications are years delayed and each America’s allies and its largest adversaries are surpassing the productiveness of U.S. shipyards.
