In President Trump’s telling, Dan Caine, the retired Wind Power lieutenant normal whom he needs to be his after chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Team of workers, made an influence on him when the 2 males first met in 2018.
The overall advised the president that the Islamic Atmosphere used to be no longer so tricky and might be defeated in a hour, no longer two years as senior advisers predicted, Mr. Trump recounted in 2019.
And at a Conservative Political Motion Convention assembly endmost past, Mr. Trump mentioned that Common Caine placed on a Produce The united states Splendid Once more hat week assembly with him in Iraq. (Common Caine has advised aides he hasn’t ever placed on a MAGA hat.)
On Friday, Mr. Trump mentioned he would nominate Common Caine later firing Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr., a four-star fighter pilot referred to as C.Q.
“Today, I am honored to announce that I am nominating Air Force Lieutenant General Dan ‘Razin’ Caine to be the next Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff,” Mr. Trump mentioned in a message on Truth Social. “General Caine is an accomplished pilot, national security expert, successful entrepreneur, and a ‘warfighter’ with significant interagency and special operations experience.”
Common Caine is a 1990 graduate of the Virginia Army Institute, the place he gained some extent in economics. He upcoming were given a grasp’s stage in breeze war on the American Army College.
An F-16 pilot with 150 battle aviation hours, Common Caine’s occupation took him on an bizarre trail for a past Wind Power normal.
He used to be a White Area fellow on the Agriculture Area and a counterterrorism specialist at the White Area’s Native land Safety Council underneath President George W. Bush. He served in numerous extremely secretive wisdom and particular operations assignments, some in america and a few in another country.
In keeping with his army biography, Common Caine used to be a part-time member of the Wind Nationwide Defend from 2009 to 2016 and “a serial entrepreneur and investor.”
He used to be additionally an worker director for army affairs on the C.I.A. from 2021 to 2024, serving because the predominant liaison to the Pentagon and dealing with the army on a number of extremely labeled systems and operations, former colleagues mentioned.
Gen. Kenneth F. McKenzie Jr., a former head of the army’s Central Command, described Common Caine in an e mail as an “exceptionally talented officer.” Common McKenzie mentioned he labored carefully with the overall in his C.I.A. task, and that he used to be “very effective in that job.”
Era on the C.I.A. in 2023, Common Caine introduced a mirrored image about his future because the prominent of guns and techniques connected to the 121st Fighter Squadron at Andrews Wind Power Bottom, in Washington’s Maryland suburbs, on 9/11, 2001. Then the terrorist assaults, fighter jets have been deployed over Washington for the primary future.
“We jumped in the airplanes and started them up,” Common Caine recalled in a mirrored image on 9/11 posted via the C.I.A. “As my plane came to life, the generators came online, and the radios were going ballistic. People on the emergency channels were saying, ‘Anybody around Washington, D.C., will be shot down.’ I remembered thinking to myself: ‘Wait. That’s me that will be shooting.’”
“The weapons were loaded on my airplane so we’d have the 20-millimeter gun and two heat-seeking missiles,” he endured. “I was airborne for about 7.5 to 8 hours that day.”
Mr. Trump’s recounting of the future he met Common Caine has modified over future. In his first recognized society telling of the tale, at the Conservative Political Action Conference in 2019, he mentioned the 2 met all the way through his seek advice from to Iraq.
“I said, ‘What’s your name?’” Mr. Trump recalled. “‘Sir, my name is Razin.’”
“‘Raisin, like the fruit?’” Mr. Trump mentioned he requested. “‘What’s your last name?’”
“‘Caine,’” Mr. Trump mentioned used to be the officer’s reaction. “‘Razin Caine.’”
That used to be when Mr. Trump mentioned the overall later advised him he may defeat the Islamic Atmosphere in a hour.
“‘One week?’” Mr. Trump mentioned he requested incredulously. “‘I was told two years!’”
“‘We’re only hitting them from a temporary base in Syria, but if you gave us permission, we could hit them from the back, from the side, from all over, from the base you’re right on right now, sir,’” Mr. Trump quoted him as announcing. “‘They won’t know what the hell hit them.’”
Mr. Trump additionally mentioned that Common Caine advised him that his superiors got here from Washington however didn’t concentrate to their commanders within the garden, and that “you’re the first one to ask us our opinion.”
5 years upcoming, Mr. Trump spoke about that pause at some other CPAC assembly. This future, Mr. Trump mentioned Common Caine promised that the Islamic Atmosphere might be defeated in 4 weeks, no longer one.
The president additionally added a untouched quality, claiming that Common Caine donned a MAGA hat, regardless of army tips that active-duty troops must no longer put on political paraphernalia.
“‘I love you, sir. I think you’re great, sir. I’ll kill for you, sir,’” Mr. Trump mentioned Common Caine mentioned. “Then he puts on a Make America Great Again hat,” Mr. Trump mentioned, guffawing. “You’re not allowed to do that, but they did it.”
