Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth did not give advance notice to senior Republican senators before announcing on Wednesday that he was firing Navy Secretary John Phelan and had already tapped his replacement, causing surprise and confusion on Capitol Hill.

“I found out about it the way everybody else did,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) told Jewish Insider of the Pentagon’s announcement on social media of Phelan’s dismissal.

Reached for comment, the Pentagon referred JI to Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell’s statement on X — the first public announcement of the news.

“Secretary of the Navy John C. Phelan is departing the administration, effective immediately. On behalf of the Secretary of War and Deputy Secretary of War, we are grateful to Secretary Phelan for his service to the Department and the United States Navy,” Parnell said on X. “We wish him well in his future endeavors.”

After taking part in White House meetings earlier Wednesday, Phelan was on Capitol Hill in the afternoon for a pair of pre-scheduled meetings, the first with Sen. Roger Wicker (R-MS), the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, and the second immediately after with Sen. Jack Reed (D-RI), the committee’s ranking member. Phelan’s departure was posted to the Pentagon’s social media pages minutes after Phelan walked out of Reed’s office, a source familiar with the matter told JI. 

A GOP senator on the committee who spoke to Reed and Wicker after the Pentagon announced Phelan’s immediate dismissal told JI that the topic of Phelan’s future in his role did not come up in either meeting, and that none of the three men was expecting such a move. 

“This was a total surprise to Senate Republican leadership, to the two leaders of the Armed Services Committee and, clearly, to the secretary of the Navy himself,” the senator said. 

Senators on the committee privately expressed concern to JI over Phelan’s firing, which comes amid as the U.S. is maintaining a naval blockade of Iranian ports and has begun boarding Iranian-linked tankers around the world, with three U.S. aircraft carriers on station or en route to the Middle East.

“I mean, I’m sure there are going to be some questions asked about the reasons, etc.,” Thune told JI. “But hopefully the authorizing committee will get a briefing and be informed about some of these decisions.”

Prior to his role at the Defense Department, Phelan ran an investment firm and was a major fundraiser for President Donald Trump’s presidential campaign. Phelan and other administration officials had reportedly been clashing over how best to grow the U.S. shipbuilding industry, a longtime challenge, though Phelan has heralded his own close relationship with Trump. 

Hegseth’s term has also been marked by ongoing friction with other senior officials in the department, including Army Secretary Daniel Driscoll, and the firings of multiple top officials. Hegseth fired Army chief of staff Gen. Randy George earlier in April.

Phelan is being replaced by Under Secretary of the Navy Hung Cao, a former House and Senate candidate in Virginia.