Washington DC - President Donald Trump's new acting Navy Secretary Hung Cao once said during a debate that the US military should be filled with "alpha males and alpha females."

Anonymous sources from within the US Navy told CNN that Cao, a retired Navy captain and former GOP Senate candidate in Virginia, had until recently been kept far from the frontline of military decision-making.

According to the sources, while Hang Cao served as undersecretary of the Navy under then-Secretary John Phelan, he was put "in a box" and kept out-of-sight, out-of-mind.

But after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth fired Phelan last week, Cao suddenly found himself in the Navy's top job, at least for the time being.

Migration ICE re-detains and then releases immigrant family of Colorado firebomb attack suspect

"He's quickly coming up to speed on all the things he wasn't allowed to be involved in," one source told CNN.

His sudden promotion to one of the US military's most senior jobs has suddenly thrown Cao's MAGA-supporting past in the spotlight – in particular, his failed 2024 run for the Senate.

"When you're using a drag queen to recruit for the Navy, that's not the people we want," Cao said during a debate with Virginia Democratic Senator Tim Kaine when asked about military recruiting.

"What we need is alpha males and alpha females who are going to rip out their own guts, eat 'em and ask for seconds," Cao claimed. "Those are young men and women that are going to win wars."

Since coming into his new role, Cao has kept such language to a minimum, stating that his immediate priority is "taking care of our sailors and Marines, advancing shipbuilding initiatives, and ensuring the defense of our homeland."

"I remain fully committed to accomplishing the core mission of the Department of the Navy as a premier warfighting organization and providing unwavering support to our warriors downrange."