Cao is a retired Navy captain and special operations officer who served in combat.
President Donald Trump has tapped Virginia’s former U.S. Senate candidate Hung Cao to serve as the U.S. Navy’s second-ranking official.
“I am pleased to announce that Hung Cao will be our next United States Under Secretary of the Navy,” Trump announced on Feb. 27 via his Truth Social platform.
The appointment follows the retired Navy captain’s November election loss to incumbent Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.).
Trump, who had endorsed Cao in that race, heralded him on Thursday as “the embodiment of the American dream,” pointing to his background as a refugee.
Cao and his family fled Vietnam just days before the fall of Saigon in 1975 and came to the United States. He attended the U.S. Naval Academy and earned his master’s degree in physics from the Naval Postgraduate School. During his 25 years of service, he served as a special operations officer in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Somalia and also held non-combat roles at the Pentagon.
“With Hung’s experience both in combat, and in the Pentagon, he will get the job done,” Trump wrote. “Congratulations to Hung, and his wonderful family!”
Responding in a social media post on X, Cao thanked the president and said it was “time to get to work.”
While on the stump last year, Cao garnered national attention with his criticism of the Biden administration’s approach to military recruitment.
“When you’re using a drag queen to recruit for the Navy, that’s not the people we want,” he said during an October debate.
“What we need is alpha males and alpha females who are going to rip out their own guts, eat them, and ask for seconds.”
Cao also decried the Justice Department’s prosecution of President Joe Biden’s political opponents. In one campaign ad, he compared the Biden administration to the communist regime that seized control of his native Vietnam and hauled his grandfathers away in the middle of the night.
Mimicking the communists’ pounding on his family’s door, he shook his head and said, “No. Not here in America.”
The veteran also launched a bid to fill Virginia’s 10th Congressional District seat in 2022. He lost that race to Democrat Rep. Jennifer Wexton.
News of Cao’s appointment as undersecretary came hours after Trump’s nominee for Navy secretary, Florida businessman John Phelan, testified at a confirmation hearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee. Phelan is expected to receive the approval of the full Senate within the coming weeks.