Trump taps financier and donor Phelan to be Navy secretary
Source: Politico
TRANSITION OF POWER
Trump taps financier and donor Phelan to be Navy secretary
John Phelan did not serve in the military and does not have a long track record with the Navy.
John Phelan, who is being nominated to be President-elect Donald Trump's Navy secretary, leads the private investment firm Rugger Management and once handled Michael Dell's investments. Alex Brandon/AP
By JACK DETSCH
11/26/2024 09:18 PM EST
President-elect Donald Trump has selected businessman John Phelan as his nominee to lead the Navy, according to a statement released on Tuesday night. ... "It is my great honor to announce John Phelan as our next United States Secretary of the Navy! John will be a tremendous force for our Naval Servicemembers, and a steadfast leader in advancing my America First vision," Trump wrote. "He will put the business of the U.S. Navy above all else."
Trump's pick of Phelan, after choosing Army National Guard Veteran and former Fox News host Pete Hegseth to lead the Defense Department, is a sign that the incoming administration could prioritize disruptors coming into the agency instead of long-tenured bureaucrats. Trump is also eyeing businessman Steve Feinberg and defense investor Trae Stephens as the Pentagon's No. 2, The Wall Street Journal reported.
Phelan, who leads the private investment firm Rugger Management and once handled Michael Dell's investments, was a major donor to the Trump campaign and reportedly hosted the president-elect at his Aspen, Colorado, home this summer where Trump went on a profanity-laced tirade about immigration and warned that the election could be the last the United States ever had if Vice President Kamala Harris had won.
Trump chose Phelan, who did not serve in the military and does not have a long track record with the Navy, after a round of interviews at Mar-a-Lago on Monday, according to one person familiar with the matter who was granted anonymity to discuss internal matters.
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Read more: https://www.politico.com/news/2024/11/26/trump-taps-phelan-navy-secretary-00191825
Hat tip, commenter ken_lov at Joe.My.God.
CHATTER AWAY: Overnight Open Thread
November 26, 2024
https://www.joemygod.com/2024/11/chatter-away-overnight-open-thread-2431/
https://www.joemygod.com/2024/11/chatter-away-overnight-open-thread-2431/#comment-6600503120
>>>>>
President-elect Donald Trump announced on Tuesday night that he is nominating businessman and art collector John Phelan as Secretary of the Navy.
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Excellent choice, Sir, if I may be so bold. For too long, the services have been run by people who knew what they were doing. Having a man run the navy who wouldn't know a corvette from a cruiser is just the shakeup the place needs. I'm sure Secretary Phelan will soon have all those woke admirals commanding garbage scows in Guam!
= new reply since forum marked as read
By William Alden August 6, 2012 11:26 am
Marilynn K. Yee/The New York TimesJohn J. Phelan Jr. at the New York Stock Exchange shortly after being elected as its chairman in 1984.
John J. Phelan Jr., a former chairman of the New York Stock Exchange who introduced computer technology to the Big Board in the 1980s and was widely praised for his calming response to the stock market crash of October 1987, died on Saturday in Manhattan. He was 81. ... The cause was complications of prostate cancer, his son Peter said.
After the 1987 crash, which shook investors’ confidence in financial markets, Mr. Phelan coolly resisted calls to close the exchange, fearing that it would breed further panic. He rang the closing bell himself. ... “He deserves eternal credit for that,” Felix G. Rohatyn, a longtime investment banker who helped save New York from bankruptcy in the 1970s, told The New York Times on Mr. Phelan’s retirement in 1990. “That was his shining hour.”
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Mr. Phelan was named vice chairman of the New York Stock Exchange in 1975, and four years later he led the creation of the New York Futures Exchange, which he ran as chairman.
Mr. Phelan had become a widely respected financial figure by the time he retired, accepting positions on various corporate boards, including that of Merrill Lynch. In recent years he was chairman of Catholic Charities, an organization that serves disadvantaged New Yorkers.
He is survived by his wife, Joyce, and three sons, John, Peter and David.
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A version of this article appears in print on 08/07/2012, on page A17 of the NewYork edition with the headline: John Phelan Jr., Ex-Head Of Big Board, Dies at 81.
