The acting secretary of the US Navy has resigned amid uproar over his handling of a coronavirus outbreak on an aircraft carrier.
Thomas Modly fired the USS Theodore Roosevelt’s captain after he pleaded for help in a letter leaked to media.
Mr Modly apologised on Monday after it emerged he had called Captain Brett Crozier’s actions “naive” and “stupid”.
The secretary’s exit comes a day after US President Donald Trump signalled he might get involved in the dispute.
Defence secretary Mark Esper said Mr Modly had “resigned of his own accord”.
The Pentagon chief said the crew’s health and safety were a priority for the department.
Army Undersecretary James McPherson is expected to replace Mr Modly.
Capt Crozier was fired last week, and footage of his crew sending him off the warship with applause went viral.
Mr Modly flew 8,000 miles on Monday to the Pacific island of Guam, where the USS Theodore Roosevelt is docked, and berated the crew for having cheered the captain as he left the ship.
Mr Modly told the crew what their former captain did “was very, very wrong” and amounted to “a betrayal of trust with me, with his chain of command”, according to recordings leaked to US media.
“If he didn’t think that information was going to get out into the public… then he was a) too naive or too stupid to be the commanding officer of a ship like this,” Mr Modly said. “The alternative is he did it on purpose.”
Amid rebukes from members of Congress, Mr Modly issued an apology the same day, saying: “I do not think Captain Brett Crozier is naive nor stupid. I think and always believed him to be the opposite.”