By Charlie Nash/ Newsbreak.com/ April 23, 2026

{As a resident here in Monterey, this information is news to me. But this Trump nominee fits in well with the President’s other strange appointments.-–TBPR Editor}

Trump’s New Navy Secretary Previously Warned ‘Witchcraft’ Had ‘Taken Over’ a Californian City

President Donald Trump’s new acting Navy secretary, Hung Cao, warned in 2023 that “witchcraft” had “taken over” the Californian city of Monterey.

Cao took over as acting secretary of the Navy this week after former secretary John Phelan was ousted from his position by Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth.

Following the news, clips from a several-year-old interview of Cao warning about witchcraft went viral on social media.

In 2023, during his unsuccessful run for the Senate in Virginia – which ended with his defeat by incumbent Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA) – Cao claimed that witches had “taken over” the city of Monterey, California and removed a reference to Jesus Christ from the name of a costal area.

“We can’t let it turn like this. 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,” said Cao during an interview with former Bethel Church pastor Sean Feucht. “A lot of witchcraft and the Wiccan community has really taken over. We can’t let that happen to Virginia.”

Business Insider reported at the time that while there did appear to be a Wiccan presence in Monterey, there was “little evidence that the community has ‘taken over’ the sunny seaside locale.”

During the same 2023 interview, Cao also joked that he was “African American” because he spent some of his childhood in Niger.