Trump has fired the secretary of the navy John Phelan. Phelan’s only qualification for the job seemed to be that he was a rich crony of Trump and Jeffrey Epstein but his replacement Hung Cao, who previously lost two races for Congress in Virginia, while having military experience, is also seriously weird.

Cao’s record, however, is not without controversy. During his 2024 candidacy, for example, USA Today reported that the Republican, a decorated Navy veteran, “made repeated references to becoming disabled after he was ‘blown up’ in combat,” although his military record did not support those claims.
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Complicating matters, shortly after launching his Senate campaign, Cao also expressed concerns about, of all things, witchcraft.

During one 2023 interview, Cao said witches had “taken over” a California city, and he wanted to prevent similar problems in the commonwealth.

“We can’t let it turn like this,” he said during an interview with a Christian pastor. “There’s a place in Monterey, California, called Lovers Point. The original name was Lovers of Christ Point, but now it’s become — they took out the ‘Christ,’ it’s Lovers Point, and it’s really — Monterey is a very dark place now, a lot of witchcraft and the Wiccan community has really taken over. We can’t let that happen to Virginia.”

It is true that the enclave (which technically is in a small community called Pacific Grove that is adjacent to Monterey) was was once called Lovers of Jesus Point in the late 19th century when it was owned by a puritanical religious group but became just Lover’s Point a long time ago.

I live in Monterey not far from Lover’s Point. It is overlooks a picturesque little cove with a nice beach and benches on the shore where people like to spend sunny days walking or just sitting and reading and watching the ocean.

Or so I thought.

Little did I know that those seemingly innocent people were secretly engaging in the dark rituals of witchcraft.

The Daily Show‘s Michael Kosta has more.

If I suddenly stop blogging, it may be because the local witches turned me into a newt for exposing their nefarious doings.

So in the middle of a war in which the navy is playing a prominent role, the person taking on the role of secretary of the navy is a loony, Is there anyone in the Trump administration who is not weird or corrupt? That is of course a rhetorical question because it has long been clear that the answer is no. The best we can hope for is simple incompetence.