President Donald Trump offered praise for former Secretary of the Navy John Phelan, explaining he was fired over some “conflict” with others in the administration.

At a Thursday press conference, Trump was asked about Phelan’s firing, and though the president said he dealt with him directly very little, he called the former secretary a “wonderful guy.” Trump did not specify who exactly Phelan had “conflict” with, only saying it was “not necessarily” Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth. The president referenced some “conflicts” with people over “building and buying” ships.

Trump said:

He’s a wonderful guy. I just put out a statement about him. He’s a very good man, I really liked him, but he had some conflict with, not necessarily Pete. He’s a hard charger and he had some conflicts with some other people, mostly as to building and buying their ships. I’m very aggressive in the new ship building, and somehow he just didn’t get along with them.

He’s an excellent guy. I think he would have gotten along great with me, I didn’t really deal with him too much. But he’s — you know, I consider him to have done a very good job. I put out a nice statement about him. You’ve got to get along, especially in the military, you’ve got to get along. And some people liked him, some people didn’t, and that’s usually the truth about everything. But I found him to be a very good man and I liked him a lot.

Fox News White House correspondent Jacqui Heinrich reported this week that Phelan had been terminated by Hegseth. Phelan is reportedly close with the president’s son, Donald Trump Jr.

Undersecretary of the Navy Hung Cao has stepped in as acting secretary.

In a Thursday afternoon post to Truth Social, Trump praised Phelan, calling him a “longtime friend.”

“John Phelan is a long time friend, and very successful businessman, who did an outstanding job serving as my Secretary Of The Navy for the last year,” he wrote. “John helped my Administration rebuild Sleepy Joe Biden’s rapidly depleted, and almost abandoned, Navy. Now, because of John, and all of the Great Men and Women lovingly and tirelessly involved, we have the strongest Navy in the World — BY FAR!”

Trump said he’d welcome back into the administration, but said he’d “decided to move on.” When answering the question about Phelan later at the White House, Trump was asked why he was “fired” and Trump made no specific mention of a decision by Phelan to exit.

Watch above via Fox News.

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