On the February 9, 2026 edition of MSNBC’s The Rachel Maddow Show, Maddow took a close look at President Trump’s highly unusual choice for Secretary of the Navy, zeroing in on how far outside the norms this pick appears to be—even by Trump-era standards.
As Maddow noted, the law requires that the secretary of a military department be a civilian, so the fact that Trump’s nominee, John Phelan, never served in uniform is not itself disqualifying. Past presidents from both parties, however, have typically chosen civilians with at least some grounding in military affairs, national security, defense policy, or government service. Phelan’s background offers none of that. His career has centered on finance and high-end art collecting, not naval operations, defense management, or public service.
What raised additional red flags during Maddow’s segment were details about Phelan’s personal world that have already surfaced publicly. Maddow reported that Phelan and his wife have previously spoken to the press about their home featuring a mirrored living-room floor used during elaborate parties. According to those accounts, the mirrored flooring was part of an intentionally provocative aesthetic, meant to add a sexualized visual element to social gatherings. Maddow emphasized that this is not about taste or prudishness, but about judgment—particularly when paired with the seriousness of overseeing one of the largest military institutions in the world.
That same living room, Maddow noted, was reportedly the site of a Trump fundraiser during the 2024 campaign, further underscoring the closeness between Phelan and Trump. Maddow also reported that Trump was said to have traveled to that fundraiser aboard an aircraft previously associated with Jeffrey Epstein, a detail that adds another layer of discomfort given Epstein’s notoriety and the persistent questions surrounding his network.
The most consequential revelation, however, came when Maddow stated that John Phelan’s name appears in Jeffrey Epstein’s flight logs. Maddow was careful to stress that appearing in those records does not, on its own, establish criminal conduct. Still, the appearance of yet another Trump-associated figure in Epstein-related documents is difficult to ignore. Maddow reported that MSNBC contacted the Navy for comment regarding Phelan’s presence in the Epstein files, and that the Navy declined to respond.
That silence naturally invites questions—chief among them whether Trump was aware of Phelan’s documented association with Epstein before selecting him for such a sensitive post. Maddow drew a comparison to the political fallout in the UK surrounding Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s controversial appointment of Peter Mandelson, where questions of judgment and vetting have similarly dominated the conversation.
What emerges from all of this is a familiar and increasingly troubling pattern. One by one, individuals in Trump’s orbit continue to surface in the Epstein files. This does not mean they are all guilty of Epstein’s crimes, and responsible commentary must stop short of making such claims. But it is entirely reasonable to observe that an unusually high number of people connected to Trump—past and present—have documented ties to Epstein or his social circle.
Much like the recurring theme of corruption that has followed Trump for years, the Epstein connections form a pattern that refuses to disappear precisely because it keeps repeating. At some point, the issue is no longer about any single name on a flight log, but about what these repeated overlaps say about the company Trump keeps, the vetting he does, and the standards he applies when handing out power.