Washington, D.C. – Retired three-star General Dan Caine may not have been widely known before February 21, but President Donald Trump’s fascination with him dates back to their first meeting in Iraq in 2018. Caine, then the deputy commander of a special operations task force fighting Islamic State, impressed Trump by claiming the militant group could be destroyed in just a week. Trump has since praised Caine multiple times, calling him a “real general, not a television general.”
On February 19, Trump announced his nomination of Caine to become the next chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, just two days before his Truth Social post catapulted Caine from retirement to a nomination to be the most senior active-duty officer in the US military. If approved by the Senate, Caine will take over a military reeling from changes in the first 30 days of the Trump administration and will inherit a Joint Staff rattled by Trump’s surprise firing of Air Force General C.Q. Brown.
Caine, a retired F-16 pilot, will be promoted to four-star general and will undergo a potentially grueling Senate confirmation process to secure a four-year term as the uniformed head of the nation’s military.
Caine’s military career is unconventional for a top military adviser. Unlike previous generals and admirals who have led a combatant command or a military branch of service, Caine did not rise that high in the ranks before retirement. Trump claimed Caine was “passed over for promotion by Sleepy Joe Biden,” whom Trump defeated in November’s presidential campaign. “But not anymore!” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
Earlier this year, Caine described on a podcast how he wanted to follow in the footsteps of his father, a fighter pilot. He graduated in 1990 from the Virginia Military Institute with a bachelor’s degree in Arts and Economics. Caine, who flew more than 2,800 hours in the F-16, was one of the pilots tasked with protecting Washington on September 11, 2001, when al Qaeda hijackers attacked the Pentagon and the World Trade Center in New York City.
Caine’s nomination will face scrutiny about his political neutrality, particularly given Brown’s firing. A senior military official who has worked with Caine described him as putting “the mission and troops above politics. He is not a political guy.”
If confirmed, Caine will lead the Joint Chiefs of Staff during a time of significant change and challenges for the US military.